march 2016 colorado editor

he aftermath of the 1999 Columbine and 2012 Aurora mass shootings de-

fi ned dichotomy for many Pulitzer Prize-winning Denver Post staff ers.

Th eir work, though recognized with the most prestigious award in journalism, came at a cost, said Kevin Simpson, a writer who worked on both staff s.

“You’re proud of the way you per-

formed as a news gathering organiza-tion and (at the same time) you’re just unbelievably sorrowful of the idea that this even happened at all,” said Simpson, a veteran journalist who has been at the Post for 31 years.

“I remember for the Columbine one, we had I guess what you’d call a celebration, but it was so muted, and again, it really refl ected that dichotomy. We were all proud of the work we’d done and we were horri-fi ed by the circumstances that made it necessary.”

colorado

Offi cial publication of the Colorado Press Association / coloradopressassociation.com / Vol. LXXXVII, No. 3 March 2016

editor

PUT IT IN PRINTWith the industry

changing, a lot of focus is on digital. But our core products need to con-tinue to improve, too.

Looking for ideas how? Look no further.

“25 ways to im-prove your print products in 2016” is free for CPA mem-bers to download http://25printideas.creativecirclemedia.com

USPS POSTAL RATES TO GO DOWNThe United States Postal Service (USPS) on

Feb. 25 fi led a notice with the Postal Regula-tory Commission (PRC) that stated it will reduce prices for market-dominant products – includ-ing Standard Mail and Periodicals.

The reduction is due to the end of the exi-gent surcharge USPS has been collecting since 2014 as a way to recoup lost revenue caused by a recession. USPS said its recovered revenue will reach $4.6 billion by April 10 – the point at which the PRC requires the surcharge to end. Postal rates for total market (TMC) cover-age products at high-density plus rates and dropped off at local post offi ces should decline by 4.3 percent, and newspapers at within-coun-ty periodical rates by 3.75 percent.

INSIDE THIS MONTH’S EDITORQ-&-A WITH GOV. HICKENLOOPERColorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is speaking at this year’s convention. Read what he has to say about the industry, marijuana and open government.

See page 3

CONVENTION CENTRALAll you need to know about the upcom-ing convention, including speaker line-ups, schedule and more.

See pages 5-9

NEWS YOU CAN USE

See PULITZER, 0See SYNC2, Page 10

CPA, SYNC2 Media could undergo structural board changes

By Joshua RobertsFor the Editor

Th e Colorado Press Service was established in the 1940s as a “one-stop shop” for busi-nesses to advertise across multiple newspapers in the state and nationally.

At its core, the Press Service model re-mained virtually untouched for more than six decades, until 2012 when it was rebranded SYNC2 Media to refl ect expanded services in the rapidly changing times of the newspaper industry.

Four years later, SYNC2 could be poised to undergo a second major foundational change.

Th e for-profi t SYNC2 is a subsidiary of the not-for-profi t Colorado Press Association. Th e organizations, however, are governed by the same board of directors, but that could soon change, depending on feedback from CPA’s general membership and board members.

Non-profi t attorney Cara Lawrence advised CPA staff that having one board oversee both organizations, though legal, is “not considered a best practice.”

Th e issue, she said, concerns “piercing the corporate veil,” — or two corporations being so intertwined they eff ectively exist as one cor-poration, a risky practice concerning liability. In the 1990s, for example, an Internal Revenue Service audit of another state’s Press Service operations recommended the press service have a mostly-independent board. Raehal said other Press Associations and Services are split between operating under one board or two separate boards, based on his research.

#newspapersthriveA S E R I E S

#newspapersthrive is a series focused on success and/or transition stories of CPA members. These stories are available for

reprint by members.

From Columbine to Aurora

Photo by Lindsay Pierce , The Denver Post

Pulitzer-winning journalism is on display in the Denver Post’s newsroom, including coverage the Columbine and Aurora theater shooting tragedies. The Post is hosting a presentation on May 13 that will look at the two tragedies and how the Post covered them. It is part of the 100-year celebration of the Pulitzer Award, and marks the kickoff of “campfi re sessions” to be held throughout the year in Colorado cit-ies. It also is the keystone Friday evening event for the Colorado Press Association’s annual convention.

Series highlights Pulitzer milestone, showcases state’s journalistic excellence

A look at how Pulitzer-winning reporting has changed with the times

By Joshua RobertsFor the Editor

T

2 colorado editor March 2016

Jacobson promoted to publisher of The (Greeley) Tribune

Bryce Jacobson will handle day-to-day operation of The Tribune in Greeley following his promotion to publisher. Formerly the general man-ager and director of advertising, he will oversee all digital and print aspects, including news, events, marketing and advertising, clas-sifieds, production, circulation and audience develop-ment. Jacobson takes over for Bart Smith, who will now concentrate on his overall general manager duties, with top-level oversight of the Greeley Publishing Co. (GPC), Fence Post Co. (FPC), and Countryside Publications.

Smith credits Jacobson for leading The Tribune to “impressive growth” in digital business. Said Jacobson: “The digital growth that we have seen has not only been on our dot.com sites, but also in advertising on extended networks and ancillary products such as email, social, etc. Specifically in the last year, our greatest digital accomplishment has been the improved communications with our subscribers, some automated, some not, but ultimately we are communicating more efficiently with them throughout the cycle of their subscription.”

As for the future, he added: “The digital focus for media (formerly newspaper) com-panies will continue to focus on sharing news and information in a manner that is condu-cive for our readers. The technology changes but the mission never does.”

Jacobson joined Greeley Publishing in 2013 as director of advertising and was promoted to general manager in October 2014. A Sterling native, he was publisher of the Craig Daily Press, 2006-2013, and is a former chairman of the Colorado Press Association board of directors. Smith joined The Tribune as publisher in 2007, adding the job of group manager of GPC and FPC the following year. He is the incoming president of the CPA board and is on the board of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition.

Bzdek in at editorial helm of The Gazette

Vince Bzdek will take over the post of editor-in-chief of The Gazette in Colorado Springs on April 4. He replaces Joanna Bean, who left her post as editor and vice president of content in January to join the University of Colorado/Colorado Springs as assistant director in the University Communications and Media Relations department.

Bzdek is an editor at large for The Wash-ington Post, where over the past 10 years he

has worked various jobs, including news director, digital political edi-tor and front-page editor. A Colorado native and graduate of Colorado Col-lege in Colorado Springs, he previ-ously was deputy managing editor at The Denver Post, where he was a member of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the beginnings of the war in Iraq. He has also written for the Wall Street Journal and Wired magazine.

Bzdek is a published author (including two books, “Woman of the House: The Rise of Nancy Pelosi” and “The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted and a Family Dream Fulfilled”) and has lectured on journalism and politics at several colleges and universities. Bzdek, his wife and two children are moving to Colorado Springs this month.

Franks new production manager for Colorado Community Media

Erin Franks was named production manager for Colorado Community Media (CCM), in Highlands Ranch, Colo., on Feb. 29. He replaces former Production/Market-ing Manager Scott Andrews, who left CCM to become creative director for Innovative Learning Concepts Inc. in Colorado Springs.

Franks earned a bachelor of fine arts, con-centrating in illustration, at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Lakewood, Colo., in 1996. He worked for Gart Sports and Sports Authority before becoming a graphic designer for the community news-paper group Mile High Newspapers Inc. (Golden Transcript, Wheat Ridge Transcript,

Arvada Press and Lakewood Sentinel) from December 2006-2012. Since 2012, he has been a graphic designer for CCM, which now includes the Mile High group.

A Colorado native, Franks lives in Lake-wood and he and his 15-year-old daughter, Lili, are big fans of “nerd culture,” the Denver Comic Con and the band Twenty One Pilots.

Meyer leaves Denver Post editorial staff

Denver Post editorial page writer Jeremy Meyer recently resigned to become assistant director of communications in the Communi-cations Division of the Colorado Department of Education in Den-ver. His 26-year journalism career also included newspapers in Oak Harbor, Walla Walla and Yakima, Wash., and The Gazette in Colorado Springs. Said Meyer via Facebook: “I hang up my pen to switch careers…I am sad to leave journalism but am excited for the new challenge and ad-venture of learning a new profession…Thank you for reading me, editing me, criticizing, answering my questions, taking my phone calls and teaching me. It has been an amazing career.”

Meyer has reported on everything from features and sports to news and opinion. After studying journalism at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash., he went to work as a reporter for the Yakima Herald-Republic (1995-1999), then moved on to a reporter job at The Gazette (2000-2004). While there he completed the Scripps Howard Institute on Environmental Journalism in May 2000. He also became a “red-card firefighter” – earning an Incident Qualification Card certification for wildland firefighting – in 2004.

He went on to work as a reporter for The Denver Post in July 2004, changing jobs to editorial page writer in December 2013, where his work included daily editorials, weekly columns and issue-oriented articles for the Sunday Perspective page. He also contributed to Post blogs.

The Colorado Editor wants to hear from you. We’re on the lookout for news about your staff, publications and businesses for our all-new columns and features in the Colorado Editor – your monthly membership newspaper from Colorado Press Association.

What’s new in Colorado news?

Colorado Newspapers

In the News

Send us your “breaking news” on:• New Hires• Promotions• People Moving On• Anniversaries• Retirements• Contest or Staff Awards & Honors

• New Building or Equipment Projects or Updates• Meetings, Seminars and Training• Community Projects• College-Related News and Events• Industry news that affects you• And any other personal news your staff members might want to share

Send your news items of 150 words or fewer (photo also welcome) to Cheryl Ghrist – [email protected] – using subject line “Colorado Editor News.”

colorado editorISSN #162-0010

USPS # 0122-940

Vol. LXXXVII, Issue 3 March 2016

Colorado Editor is the official publication of the Colorado Press

Association and is published monthly at 1120 Lincoln St., Suite 912

Denver, CO 80203p: 303-571-5117f: 303-571-1803

coloradopressassociation.com

Subscription rate:$10 per year, $1 single copy

StaffJerry Raehal

Chief Executive [email protected]

Board of DirectorsOFFICERS

ChairTerri House

The Pagosa Springs [email protected]

PresidentKeith Cerny

Alamosa Valley [email protected]

Vice PresidentBart Smith

The [email protected]

TreasurerMatt Lubich

The Johnstown [email protected]

SecretaryLarry Ryckman

The Denver [email protected]

DIRECTORS

Mike WigginsGrand Junction Daily [email protected]

Beecher ThreattOuray County [email protected]

Lisa SchlichtmanSteamboat Pilot & Today

[email protected]

Jason Woodside Colorado Community Media

[email protected]

Vincent Laboy The Montrose Daily Press

[email protected]

Matt Sandberg The Summit Daily [email protected]

Periodical postage paid atDenver, CO 80202.

POSTMASTER:Send address changes to

Colorado Editor1120 Lincoln St., Suite 912

Denver, CO 80203

BRYCE JACOBSON

VINCE BZDEK

JOANNA BEAN

BARTSMITH

JEREMYMEYER

colorado editor 3March 2016

Q A&10 questions with

By Cheryl GhristContributing Editor

This issue, “10 Questions” checked in with John Hickenlooper, the 42nd governor of the State of Colorado, and opening speaker at the 2016 Colorado Press Association Annual Convention on May 13.

Born in Narberth, Penn., he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s in geology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Hickenlooper was first sworn in as gover-nor on Jan. 11, 2011, and for a second term on Jan. 13, 2015.

A member of the Democratic Governors Association and the Western Governors’ As-sociation, he currently serves on the Executive Committee and the Economic Development and Commerce Committee of the National Governors Association.

With a pretty good record as a professional, a businessman and a politician are there other industries or education you wish you could experience to check off more goals

on your “wish list”?

I think success in the restaurant business and success in politics both reflect customer service to an extent. It’s about really trying to see what people want and need.

One of the places we can improve in public service is in apprenticeship programs, where when kids turn 16, they can go to work for three days a week, and then go back to high school or community college for two days a week, and learn at their school things that are applicable, or at least give a context for, what they are pursuing on the business side.

It could be as simple as reading a news-paper, or studying economic trends or world affairs.

That goal is tied to my work in public ser-vice. If I go back to the private sector, I think I would probably want to build stuff. I think I’d want to take old buildings and renovate them again. It’s always been my real love.

It’s been a few years since you’ve addressed the state’s journalists at the Colorado Press Association’s annual Convention. What are your thoughts on what it’s like to be

back “center stage,” and do you enjoy being among the members of the press in a more social setting than usual?

In college I came very close to studying journalism and having a summer job working for the Tren-tonian in Trenton, New Jersey with Gil Spencer.

I’ve always had an inclination towards journalism and one of the great things about restaurants – and about politics – is I get to see a lot of journalists all the time.

With various honors and board work, you’ve been in the national media spotlight during your politi-cal career. What is your opinion of

journalists and their industry in Colorado and how they compare with their counter-parts across the country?

Journalism has changed so dra-matically in the last five or ten years. And it’s happened everywhere. I think Colorado has held its own pretty well, but The Rocky Moun-

tain News no longer exists. The Denver Post has about a third of the

number of people on staff as they had ten years ago. It’s hard not to be disheartened.

Just as Teddy Roosevelt – and I’m not com-paring myself to Teddy Roosevelt – but just as Teddy Roosevelt worked with the muckrakers and the journalists of his time to help him create good government, we have tried to do that at the state level.

With fewer journalists, it’s harder to do. One of the challenges for all of us is to look

for new revenue streams so that journalism

can reward enough people to go out there, investigate and report.

Since you’ve advocated transpar-ency of government during your terms as mayor and governor, do you have an affinity for freedom of information issues – general free-

dom of the press, open courts, and access to government records and meetings – and the work of the Colorado Freedom of Informa-tion Coalition?

Yes, I recognize that making sure that the media can get access to records, and they can come to meet-ings if you’ve got more than two politicians in a room, I think that

works toward making a better democracy. It can be burdensome to go back through

all of your files and redact information to protect citizens who may be mentioned or

included in an email but have nothing to do with the investigation, but that’s just the cost of making sure we have a good democracy.

Speaking of those issues, this question is from CFOIC Executive Director Jeffrey A. Roberts:What are your thoughts on the question of whether public records

maintained in database formats ought to be available to the public in formats that allow for searching, sorting and aggregating by the user?

That depends on the details and the situation. If government is collecting data as paper records, to have those records digitized when they may not need to be seems like a waste of

money to me.

Regarding FOI issues in general, have you noted an increase in inter-est from the media and the general public during your terms in office, and if so, to what would you at-

tribute this?

If anything, I would say there has been less interest by the public. Obviously there are not as many reporters as there once were, but there are so many different ways that

people get their news. Often, they’re just picking up headlines

from Twitter or Facebook, and I think that erodes people’s interest in civic affairs.

As a leader and a businessman who has opposed all marijuana legaliza-tion efforts in the past, do you have a different view now, or are you still monitoring the effects of the indus-

try and reserving a change in opinion?

A couple years ago, I would have said let’s flip the vote over if I could have. Now I think we’ve made a lot of progress, and it’s possible to imagine this regulatory system actu-

ally working to the point where we dramati-cally diminish the number of drug dealers.

To me, that’s the real key. If we can do that, then that’s a pretty good thing. And if we can demonstrate that young kids and teenagers aren’t getting into pot more than they were before legalization, that also is a very good thing. So I’m cautiously optimistic.

And how is working with not only a Denver Office of Marijuana Policy but also a Marijuana Editor at the Denver Post?

If you ever told me that we were going to have a marijuana editor at a time when we are cutting 60 percent of the journalist jobs here, I would have laughed.

But then again, I never would’ve imagined that we as a state would have legalized recre-ational marijuana.

Gov. John Hickenlooper

See 10 QUESTIONS, Page 11

‘I’ve always had a suspicion that I could have been a good journalist’

Courtesy photo

Gov. John Hickenlooper sits outside the Capitol. Hickenlooper is scheduled to present at the 2016 CPA annual convention in May.

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Lots of exciting new opportunities to learn and earn over the next few months. Here is a quick look at what SYNC2 Me-dia — a for-profit affiliate of the Colorado Press Association — has in store for you:

SYNC2 U webinars ad trainings to have digital feel

SYNC2 U Ad Sales 101 training webi-nars will have a new media feel for the next few sessions.

“Selling Digital, Talk-ing the Talk” led by Ad Taxi’s Alana Pawloski was March 24 and is available on demand.

The next digital sales session, “Competition and Exchang-

es,” also led by Pawloski, is tentatively scheduled slated for noon April 21. In this session, you will learn who the digital competition is, what Exchanges are and how they work.

The final digital sales training, “How to add value to print with digital” is slated for noon May 19. In this session, you will see

how digital solutions are the perfect tool for up selling your current clients. Learn the best ways to present a media mix to your clients.

We will be sending sign-up details via email blasts. Or contact me for more details.

2 new initiatives to help drive political ad revenue

The Associated Press is offering all CPA members who also are AP members the opportunity to have the AP election widget placed on their site.

Your paper does a great job of covering all the local elections, now you can keep those readers on your site longer with AP coverage of the national elections.

SYNC2 Media will be selling the ad space on the page with a revenue share for all participating CPA/AP member papers.

Colorado TV (CTV) is a long term, col-laborative project between CPA, SYNC2 Media and Denver Post (Colorado)TV that will enable our industry to unite our resources and compete for eyeballs and revenue with the big digital outlets like Google and Yahoo for years to come.

As a CPA member paper, you can place a customized video player on your site at no charge to you. You can then share video content from your paper’s site throughout the state on CTV, driving traf-fic to your site.

SYNC2 Media will sell pre roll video advertising on the player with a revenue sharing program for all participating

papers. Your staff will have the ability to sell into the CTV program, too. Imagine seeing all of the 15 and 30 second politi-cal commercials you see on TV (and the revenue associated with them), on your site this political season.

Contact Doug Hay at 720-272-7173 or [email protected] to learn more about how to participate in any of these programs.

Three newspapers earn Second Street honors

The Tribune in Greeley, Steamboat Pilot & Today and The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction were honored recently in the 7th Annual Second Street Awards for outstanding performance and results in online promotions.

The awards were handed out Feb. 17 via webinar, honoring media companies across North America and the EU in 26 categories for contests, ballots, quizzes and e-commerce programs.

The Tribune earned “Best Small Market Promotions Program” and “Best Sponsored Quiz.”

Steamboat earned “Best Hashtag Photo Sweeps” and “National Sports Contest.”

The Sentinel was awarded “Best Niche Ballot.”

A release from the St. Louis-based Second Street noted: “Borrell Associates’ research shows online promos will grow to an $80 billion industry by 2017, which the results represented in the Second Street Awards demonstrated to be true.”

After a plethora of interviews, Judy Quelch has been hired a new account executive for SYNC2 Media.

“Judy has the ability to connect immediately with prospects and clients and takes the job of deliver-ing results for them personally,” said Doug Hay, VP of Marketing for SYNC2 Meida. “Her professionalism and love of the industry shows in everything she does.”

Born and raised in Southern California, Quelch earned her BSBA in the Midwest and has been a Colo-rado resident for more than two decades.

Trained in print and online sales by Gannett at the Fort Collins Colo-radoan, Judy earned the coveted ‘Salesperson of the Year” award in her first full year at the newspaper and was promoted to Sales Supervisor soon after.

She has more than 25 years experience in retail-ing, sales management and B2B sales, and worked with Hay while at the Coloradoan.

“I am excited to be working with Judy again,” Hay said. “Her friendly, efficient and enthusiastic manner have not changed since we worked togeth-er at the Fort Collins Coloradan in the early 2000s. Our prospects and clients are getting a world class consultant and partner.”

You can reach Quelch at [email protected] or her direct line at 720.274.7172.

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Full Service Solutions For Your Publishing Needs

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New member for SYNC2 Media team

JUDY QUELCH

SYNC2 Media Update

Doug Hay

SYNC2 Media,VP of Marketing


Costs ...Cost for CPA members: Friday only: $50Friday (includes lunch): $90Saturday only (no dinner or lunch): $65Saturday only (includes dinner and lunch): $150Full convention (not including Saturday dinner and lunch): $80Full convention (including Sat-urday dinner and lunch): $175

Meals only:Friday lunch only: $45Saturday Night Awards (din-ner only): $100 per person, or a table of 10: $800

Room rates: $125 (Normal price $230-280), no parking costs. To reserve your room, call 303-987-2000 and ask for the CPA rate. Or register online at https://www.star-woodmeeting.com/Book/colo-press2016

ColoradoPressAssociationTentativeSchedule•2016AnnualConvention•May13-14•DenverWestSheraton

Friday General Collegetract Editorial Rev.Enhancement Design&Graphics Digital-editorialDigitalEditandRev.

EnhancementEmployeerelations

10a.m. Annualmeeting

11:30a.m.LunchGov.Lunch—Gov.John

Hickenlooperwillpresentduringthelunch

1-2p.m. HowtogetaJournalismJob Fact-checking yourself and your sources Saving Public Notices Native Advertising on a

Shoestring MobileStrategies BeyondTheMargins:RecruitingandRetainingin2016

DOUGBELL,EvergreenNewspapers

ERIN JORDAN, The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)

ED HENNINGER, Henninger Consulting

JACI SMITH, Delawareonlilne.com

MARKUSFELDENKIRCHEN,ppiMedisUS,Inc.

JAMES MCDONOUGH, Human Resources Research

Consultant, MSEC

2:15-3:15p.m JobFair Finding magnificence in the mundane Advertising Round Table News Design 101 Competing On the Web Part 1:

Tools and TechniquesOf new labor laws and free-

lance writing

JOHN AGUILAR, Denver Post Moderated by Doug Hay, SYNC2 Media

ED HENNINGER, Henninger Consulting KEVIN BRIDGES, newmedia CURTIS GRAVES, Staff

Attorney, MSEC

3:30-4:30p.m. The editorial writers briefcase Media Buyers Panel25 Design Things They Say

You Can't Do...But You Really Can!

Building a digital-first newsroom

Competing On the Web Part 2: Strategy and Connection

D. REED ECKHART, Wyoming Tribune Eagle

JON BROSS, KATIE ENGERMAN, Vladimir Jones


JACI SMITH, Delawareonlilne.com RICK MANELIUS, Newmedia

5p.m. APreception6p.m. ApAwards/CAPERS

7:30p.m.Pulitzerpresentationat

theDenverPost

Saturday General KeynoteBonusSession Editorial Rev.Enhancement Design&Graphics Digital-editorial DigitalRev.Enhancement ConsultingAvailable

7-9a.m. pastpresidentsbrkfst—byinviteonly

9-10a.m.

KeynoteTheFutureofLocalMedia

GORDONBORRELL,BorrellAssociates

GordonBorrell

10:15-11:15 How to Become a 'Media Company of the Future'

Newspaper Ethics in the digital age

Creating and packaging relevant consumer content

8 digital tools your newsroom can be using:


GORDON BORRELL, Borrell Associates

ELIZABETH A. SKEWES , Associate professor in Journalism and Media

Studies at CU

Russell Viers JENNIFER HEFTY, Fort Collins Coloradoan


11:30a.m.Lunch

Keynote-ThreeEpiphaniesaboutSavingCommunity

JournalismPENELOPEMUSE

ABERNATHY,UniversityofNorthCarolina

1-2p.m. Leading Change: Successful Strategies and Tactics

Newsroom Productivity: Feeding Your Passion While

Feeding the BeastSelling Personality Styles Building your Newspaper

Faster using Creative Suite ED HENNINGER, Henninger

Consulting

PENELOPE MUSE ABERNATHY, University of

North CarolinaERIN JORDAN, The Gazette

(Cedar Rapids, Iowa)TIM SMITH, Tim Smith

Consulting RUSSELL VIERS ED HENNINGER, Henninger Consulting

2:15-3:15p.mA learning newsroom –

making the contract work for you

Newspaper Events and Programs: Added Revenue

Opportunity

Production workflow for a digital-first newsroom.

Transforming a Local Media Company


D. REED ECKHART, Wyoming Tribune Eagle

JENIFER FURDA, Colorado Springs Business Journal

JENNIFER HEFTY, Fort Collins Coloradoan

DAN EASTON, Victoria Advocate


3:30-4:30p.m.What Can You Do, and What

Should You Do, in Social Media and Online: Legal

Rights and Ethical Wrongs.

Selling Print in a Digital World, and Bundling Digital

and PrintVideo, how to stream and

monetize Powering Digital Agency

SuccessED HENNINGER, Henninger

Consulting

STEVE ZANSBERG, Attorney at Levine, Sullivan, Koch

and Schulz, LLP

TIM SMITH, Tim Smith Consulting

JENNIFER HEFTY & RYAN YOUNG, Fort Collins

ColoradoanDAN EASTON, Victoria

AdvocateED HENNINGER, Henninger

Consulting

5p.m. Awardsreception6p.m. Awardsdinnerbegins

6:45p.m. Awardspresentationbegins

I must admit, I’m proud of last year’s conven-tion.

We had a great speaker line-up, increased at-tendance and we nearly tripled sponsorships.

But I also admit planning the Colorado Press Association’s premier annual event this year has given me pause.

We’ve moved the timeframe from February to May 12-14, moved it to a new hotel — the Den-ver West Sheraton — and have made the contest more competitive.

All these changes were at the membership’s re-quest, but they are significant. And such changes leave me with questions.

HOW WILL THE NEW TIMEFRAME AND LOCATION IMPACT ATTEN-DANCE?

With better weather and roads and a lower room rates (no parking fees) at the hotel, I hope it increases attendance.

WILL MEMBERS BRING AS MANY PEOPLE IF THEY’RE NOT WINNING AS MANY AWARDS?

Changes made to the contest did the job: The contest is more competitive as the awards show will be shorter.

But the contest has meaning for members, and some only send those to the convention who have

won awards. I agree the contest

is important, but in today’s day and age, I think continuing education is even more so. Which leads me to the next ques-tion.

CAN WE TOP LAST YEAR’S SPEAKER LINE-UP?

On this count, I’m confident this year’s speaker line-up is one of the best around.

Beyond Gov. John Hickenlooper sched-

uled to kickoff the convention, we have nationally acclaimed speakers, such as Penny Abernathy and Gordon Borrell, who in addition to giving key-note speeches also will be providing workshops.

The diversity of topics is wide ranging. On both print and digital platforms, we have a vari-ety of speakers on editorial and revenue enhance-ment. There are sessions on productivity as well as on employee relations. We’re even offering free

one-on-one design consultations on your print product, and two sessions devoted on ways to improve your website.

I feel confident saying that if you come, you will leave with valuable insight.

CAN WE INCREASE SPONSORSHIP?In a word, yes.We are up 460 percent over two years ago, and

up 42 percent over last year.If you’re looking at how to make your paper

run more effectively, we have a great cross-section of sponsors who can help.

SO WHAT ARE THE DEADLINES?The deadline to register is April 19, which is

also the same deadline for special room rates at the Denver West Sheraton ($125).

After that there is $50 late fee on registration for the convention, and the room rates go to the season rate.

You can register online at https://coloradopres-sassociation.formstack.com/forms/2016_conven-tion_member

Or download a print form at: http://www.coloradopressassociation.com/img/

site_specific/uploads/2016_convention-sign-up_2.pdf

For more details on the convention, go to the CPA’s website coloradopressassociation.com.

Convention changes lead to questions

Jerry Raehal

Colorado Press,CEO

2016 Colorado Press Association Annual Convention

May 12-14 • Denver West Sheraton • #CPAPressOn


Penny AbernathyUniversity of North Carolina

BIO: Penelope (Penny) Muse Abernathy, a journalism professional with more than 30 years of experience as a reporter, editor and media executive, became the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics in 2008.Abernathy is a former execu-tive at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and specializes in preserving qual-ity journalism by helping the news business succeed eco-nomically in the digital media environment. Her book, “Saving Commu-nity Journalism: The Path to Profitability,” was published by UNC Press in 2014 and is based on five years of re-search. TOPICSKeynote: Three Epiphanies about Saving Community Journalism

Abernathy will lay out a path for renewal for community newspapers in the digital age. It builds on the research that she and her team have con-ducted during the last 7 years with more than two dozen pa-pers from around the country. It looks at the three strategies that will help papers not only survive, but thrive.Workshop: Leading Change: Successful Strategies and Tactics

Change is difficult. This ses-sion asks this question: “If you succeed, how will you look to your customers, employees and shareholders?” It will ex-plore how publishers and edi-tors identify the processes and procedures that must change, and then set up a system of measuring against goals and motivating others.

Russell Viers

BIO: Russell Viers is an inter-national speaker who, since 1997, has presented in 22 countries for publishing events including the HOW Confer-ence, InDesign Conference, IFRA, PepCon and many more including AdobeMAX, where he was honored as an Adobe-MAX Master.TOPICS:Creating and packaging relevant consumer content

Readers’ have more options than ever to get the news and we have to be innovative and exciting to grab their atten-tions. In this session, Russell will challenge you to rethink your newspaper design and how you present your news to your readers. Building your Newspaper Faster using Creative Suite

Adobe has built into Creative Suite (now Creative Cloud) tools that help automate and streamline production that can save you HOURS, if not DAYS in front of the computer doing repetitive tasks. Want to automate building the Gradu-ation Edition…simple. Want to format headlines, bylines, drop caps, body and more in a click?…no problem. Want to create a parallel workflow where your writers can use word and AUTOMATICALLY have the text go into InDe-sign already formatted?…yep, it can do that, too! Want to see how you can quickly sort through hundreds (or thousands) of digital photos to choose the best ones, and process them quickly? There is so much to learn in even this two-part class.

Gordon BorrellBorrell Associates

BIO: Gordon Borrell is a sought-after speaker for con-ferences and company meet-ings and one of the media industry’s leading analysts. He is ranked in the top 2 per-cent among Gerson Lehrman Group’s 150,000 consultants worldwide and is quoted frequently in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Ad Age, Forbes and other publications. TOPICS:Keynote address: The Fu-ture of Local Media

The media industry has experienced wrenching changes in the past decade, but Gordon Borrell isn’t one to use a ruler to make forecasts. In fact, he sees some long-standing trends likely to start reversing themselves. With the help of a whole lot of ad-spending data, a 300-mem-ber forecasting panel, and a dose of historical perspective, Borrell offers a unique look at where it’s all headed, and how today’s newspapers are uniquely positioned evolve into even stronger entities.How to Become a ‘Media Company of the Future’

Following up with his key-note presentation, Gordon Borrell will stick around for a 60-minute workshop on what it takes to become a “Media Company of the Future.” This highly interactive session will start with a look at what other companies are doing to bolster revenue. What are the key products, and who’s selling them? What about profit margins? Organizational structure? Come prepared to ask questions and take a lot of notes.

Keynote speakers Graphics

Your 2016 annual convention speaker line-up

John HickenlooperColorado Governor

BIO: John Hickenlooper is a former geologist and entrepre-neur who champions innova-tion, collaboration and efficien-cy. When he was inaugurated Governor of Colorado in 2011, having run on his history of collaboration for community good, he became the first Denver mayor to be elected governor in 150 years.He also became the first ge-ologist to become a governor in the history of the nation, and the first brewer since Sam Adams in 1792. Again he has recruited talent from all quarters, and is redefining the relationship between a state government and its business and civic communities.Since taking office in 2011, the Governor and his team have endeavored to make Colorado the most pro-business state, with the highest environmental and ethical standards.

Ed HenningerHenninger Consulting

BIO: Henninger Consult-ing has served hundreds of dailies, weeklies, business journals, church-affiliated newspapers and niche publi-cations throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Founded in 1989 by indepen-dent design consultant Ed Henninger, our mission is to provide high-quality newspa-per design services and con-sultation. Nationally-respected newspaper consultant Ken Blum calls Ed “the nation’s foremost design expert for large and smaller hometown newspapers, period.” TOPICS:Saving Public NoticesHere is a new and powerful weapon in the battle to retain legal advertising by showing them in innovative design ap-proaches.News Design 101: All Basics, No Bull

25 Design Things They Say You Can’t Do...But You Re-ally Can!

BONUS! Free Newspaper Design evaluations on Sat-urday

One of the nation’s premier community newspaper design experts, Ed Henninger, will be providing 20-25 minute, one-on-one sessions with re-questing members to go over designs of their newspapers. This is a first sign up, first of-fered deal, so register soon.

To sign-up, email Ed directly at [email protected], with the subject line: “CPA Design Evalua-tion.” Bring 3-4 hard copies of recent publications to the session.

New this year• Pay your registration fees online

• More breakout sessions


Reed EckhartWyoming Tribune Eagle

BIO: D. Reed Eckhardt is the executive editor and editorial page editor at the Wyoming Tribune, a paper he has guided to being a product that regularly wins awards on the national stage, including in NNA, Inland and Associated Press competitions. TOPICS:The editorial writers briefcase: How your opinion page can lead

So what does it take to be a strong opinion writer? Join us to see what it takes to write solid, engaging editorials and columns. But be forewarned: This is not a lecture. Rather, it will be a wide-ranging discus-sion in which you and your fellow session-mates will share your ideas and try to figure out what should be in every opin-ion writer’s briefcase. We also will talk about strategies to enrich your newspaper’s ap-proach to community leader-ship from the editorial pages.A learning newsroom — a contract that works for you

Having a successful news-room is all about fulfilling a contract between you, as a manager, and your employ-ees. Yes, they want to get paid, and they want to see their bylines on the front page. But what they really want is to get better, learn, grow, and be professionals. They want to move on to bigger and better things. And it is your job to help them get there. You have to have a plan, and you have to work the plan, regardless of how busy you are or what your bosses are demanding of you.

John AguilarDenver Post

BIO: John Aguilar has been in the daily newspaper business for more than a decade. He has been a reporter with The Denver Post for two years, pri-marily covering the suburbs, politics and education. He was a reporter at the Boulder Daily Camera for 7 1/2 years and, before that, was at the Rocky Mountain News for more than two years.TOPIC:Finding magnificence in the mundane

City council agendas are not the most scintillating reading you'll come across during the week, but they are a staple of the daily newspaper reporter trying to keep track of what's going on in a community and of what public officials are up to. If you're discerning enough, you can often find jewels of stories hidden amid the abstruse wording typically associated with government business. Marijuana policy, oil and gas disputes and count-less other subjects that have appeal to a wider readership are often dealt with on the hyperlocal level, giving the astute reporter a chance to broaden what appears to be a neighborhood story to a wider geographic area. This type of sleuthing for compelling stories goes beyond written agendas and meeting min-utes. Keep your eyes open in the community you cover -- you'll be amazed at all the back stories and interesting twists that are hidden in the most mundane quarters.

Jennifer HeftyFort Collins Coloradoan

BIO: Jennifer Hefty is the planning editor for the Fort Collins Coloradoan, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. She started at the Coloradoan as a copy editor and moved into web production before becoming planning editor in 2014. In this role, Jennifer helps lead the digital team at the Coloradoan and oversees the digital and print production workflows for the newsroom.TOPICS:Production workflow for a digital-first newsroom

·Best practices for creat-ing a workflow that meets the needs of the print product, while first focusing on serving and expanding your digital readership. In a digital era, it’s important to serve your audience where they are – be that on desktop, mobile or in print. Prioritizing live coverage efforts on digital platforms first, and making digital/social pre-sentation a staple in planning discussions will help make content sing across platforms.

8 digital tools your newsroom can be using:

From live Twitter feeds to LiveStreams to Snapchat and more, learn new ways you can engage your audience and expand your reach on existing and emerging platforms.Video: Ways to shoot, ways to increase revenue

Video is one of the best rev-enue options for newspapers. This session will look at ways to shoot and ways to monetize your efforts.

Jaci SmithDelawareonline.com

BIO: Jaci Smith is the digital planner for Gannett's Dela-wareonline.com (The News Journal). Before joining Delawareonline three months ago, she was the managing editor of a small newspaper in Minnesota and a fellow with the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. She has been a newsroom warrior for 25 years in five different states from New Jersey to California with the bumps, bruises and awards to prove it. TOPICS:Native Advertising on a Shoestring

This session will go in-depth on what native advertising is, what it isn’t and will provide you with a step by step guide on how you can sell it and cre-ate it at your paper.

Building a digital-first newsroom

So you’ve got a Facebook page and a Twitter account ... now what? Learn how to improve all types of content by growing engagement, crowd sourcing and using analytics to help determine a coverage plan.

Editorial

To register for the convention• Register online at https://colora-dopressassociation.formstack.com/forms/2016_convention_member• Download a registration form at http://www.coloradopressassociation.com/news-events/annual-convention/registra-tion

Reserve your room• Call 303-987-2000 and ask for the CPA rate. • Or register online at https://www.star-woodmeeting.com/Book/colopress2016

Stay up to date• By checking out CPA’s convention page• Following the CPA’s convention Facebook page

Erin JordanThe Gazette

(Cedar Rapids, Iowa)

BIO: Erin Jordan is an investi-gative reporter for The Ga-zette, where she covers topics ranging from tax breaks and business incentives to hospital management and food waste at public institutions. She received the Iowa Newspaper Foundation’s Harrison “Skip” Weber Investigative Reporting Award in 2012. TOPICS:Newsroom Productivity: Feeding Your Passion While Feeding the Beast

Your days as a reporter are jammed with meetings, hearings and interviews on stories that are worthwhile, but assigned by someone else. How do you identify and find time for stories that inspire you? We’ll talk about extract-ing enterprise stories from your beat, chipping away at passion projects and convinc-ing your editor these stories are worth it.Fact-checking yourself and your sources

Journalists build credibility story by story, but careless mistakes or unchecked source statements can erode that credibility. We’ll talk about how to fact-check sources as well as review our own work to reduce errors. Sleep soundly once you put your story to bed knowing you’ve done your best to bullet-proof your copy.


Jon Bross and Katie Engerman

Vladimir Jones

Brooklyn Baggett Warehouse 21

TOPIC:Media Buyers Panel

With emerging ad technol-ogy, increasingly fragile client relationships and aggres-sive competition – the role of media planners and buyers is constantly evolving. Join our Media Buyer’s Panel discus-sion to learn what it takes to demonstrate true value in a proposal, offer the concepts and ideas that media buyers need in their campaigns and most importantly, build lasting and mutually beneficial buyer/seller relationships. Our panel of strategic planners and buy-ers have experience buying all media types from traditional to digital/social, and across more than 20 different industries.What You Will Learn

• The role and duties of a Media Planner & Buyer

• How successful relation-ships develop between media buyers and sellers

• The planning process – achieving goals, accountabil-ity and measurement

• The top (5) elements of a proposal

• Candid Q&A to help offer insight into some of your own challenging buyer/seller rela-tionships

Revenue Enhancement

Dan EastonVictoria Advocate

BIO: Dan Easton currently serves as Publisher of the Victoria (Texas) Advocate. He represents the third generation of ownership of the news-paper, and has led much of transition to a digital media company. TOPICS:Transforming a Local Media Company

Dan Easton will present about the culture, success stories, lessons learned and plan for his company. Easton was new to the industry four years ago. Armed with a back-ground in technology, he set out to “do things differently” and boy has he. It has been impressive to watch. Their digital revenue percentage is among the highest in their peer group. They are sell-ing over six figures in native advertising. Don’t miss this session that is sure to inspire and provide great ideas.Powering Digital Agency Success

Digital agency services are seen as an opportunity for publishers to diversify and grow their revenue— but it’s a complicated world out there with pure plays, verticals, agencies, and other media all vying for SMBs’ minds and wallets share. Learn how to identify customers at their “ready-to-buy” moment, and target them with the custom content and campaigns.

Jenifer FurdaColorado Springs Business Journal

BIO: Jenifer Furda is the Associate Publisher for the Colorado Springs Business Journal and manages circula-tion, advertising and events. She attended the University of Northern Colorado for both her Bachelor’s and her Mas-ters degrees. She has won numerous awards from Top 40 Under 40, Women of Influence and Staff Person of the Year for the Western United States Chamber of Commerce As-sociation. TOPIC:Newspaper Events and Programs: Added Revenue Opportunity

Come and learn how through events and programs you can earn extra revenue through sponsorships, ad sales and attendance. AND you can create more power and influence for your paper as well.

Tim SmithTim Smith Consulting

BIO: Tim Smith Consulting is an employee and manage-ment training organization located in Allentown, Pennsyl-vania. Their corporate mission statement is “to provide our customers with quality class-room instructor led business skills training.TOPICS:Selling Personality Styles

You want to make sells? It’s more than the product. It’s the customer ... and it’s you. This fun, interactive session will fo-cus on understanding different selling and buying styles and how to adapt our selling style to match your clients buying style.

Selling Print in a Digital World, and Bundling Digital and Print

For the vast majority of newspapers, print is still the bread and butter. This session will focus on specific ques-tions and skills on how to sell print in a digital world. It will also look at bundling together your products, based on your customer’s needs, using the eight steps presentation process.

Markus Feldenkirchen

CEO ppi Media US, Inc

BIO: Markus Feldenkirchen follows changes in the busi-ness models of American publishers intensively. At ppi Media, he is decisively involved in the development of new products that enable publishers to monetize print and digital services. Markus Feldenkirchen will become a member of the management board at ppi Media GmbH (Germany) as of July 1, 2016. TOPIC:Mobile strategies: Editorial and revenue

Mobile use is growing at a breakneck pace, and shows no signs of slowing down. Do you have a strategy to reach readers there? What about ways to capture revenue? This session will go over a variety of options for you to consider and reach your readers and clients where they are at.

The Denver Post presentsa Pulitizer Forum

The Internet and the public’s reliance on the latest information has changed the way journalists cover stories, and there is probably no better case study for how much their work has changed than in the cover-age of breaking news. The Denver Post won a Pulit-zer Prize for Breaking News in 2000 for its coverage of the Columbine High School shootings, and one in 2013 for its coverage of the Aurora Theater shoot-ings. Members of The Post staff who worked both of these tragic events will offer their thoughts on how the coverage and presentation of the two events differed -- and what journalistic tools will never go out of style.The moderated Q&A session will be at The Denver Post auditorium.


Rick Maneliusnewmedia

BIO: Chief Operating Officer Rick Manelius, a valuable member of the newmedia team since 2012, gradu-ated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he coached track and field, with a B.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engi-neering. If you’re ever curious about the quantum electrody-namic interactions of carbon nanotube systems, he’s your guy.TOPIC:Competing On the Web Part 2: Strategy and Connection

Technology by itself is meaningless without proper execution. Even in 2016, we’re seeing big brands ineffec-tively leverage their expensive websites and social media presence to connect with their audiences. This is particularly troubling given that the transi-tion from mass media to niche and local communities has been occurring for decades, with only a fraction of compa-nies willing to fully commit to new strategies necessary in this new reality.

In part two of this talk, we will cover strategies that focus on building a strong connec-tion between your brand and your audience. After all, in a world where we are drowning in information, strengthen-ing your audiences’ trust and connection with you is the only thing that is going to keep them from going elsewhere. Finally, while each individual strategy may be useful in and of itself, many of them will have a shelf life of a few years before they become ineffec-tive in the ever-changing land-scape. Therefore, part of this talk will focus on the overarch-ing mindset necessary to stay competitive.

Kevin Bridgesnewmedia

BIO: Chief Technology Officer Kevin Bridges is a longtime Internet veteran who became involved in application and systems development in 1992. He has been instrumental in delivering some of the larg-est and most complex Drupal websites in existence, includ-ing brands like Popular Sci-ence magazine and Examiner.com. TOPIC:Competing On the Web Part 1: Tools and Techniques

Ultimately, the goal of a website is to make an impact by connecting one’s message to as many people as possi-ble. Unfortunately, many sites fall short in many regards: They are not flexible enough to create new formats of content; they cost too much update; they do not provide meaning-ful analytics regarding cus-tomer behavior across multiple properties; and so on. Worst of all, some sites may provide a terrible user experience on mobile media platforms or may not display correctly when shared on social media platforms, resulting in many missed opportunities.

This talk is the first in a two-part series. Here we will focus on important considerations at the content management system (CMS) level that allows your site to play nice with so-cial media platforms (through metadata), return better search results with google (through microdata), and provide the flexibility to create and consume different types of content across the web. By investing this time up front, you will have the foundational components that will allow you to stay competitive in this space and open the door to follow the strategies discussed in part two.

Curtis GravesStaff Attorney at Mountain States Employee Council

BIO: Curtis Graves is an employment law attorney for Mountain States Employers Council, headquartered in Denver. MSEC is a non-profit membership organization of more than 3,000 employ-ers in 11 states throughout the Rocky Mountain region and beyond. MSEC provides advice, counsel, information, representation, training, and education in all aspects of the employment relationship. TOPIC:New labor law and freelance writers: What you need to know and when

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Final Rule on overtime and white-collar employees, expected as early as May 2016, is just one of many chal-lenges facing today’s publish-ing community.

The rule, if published in its current form, could mandate a minimum salary of $50,440 for exempt employees. Will your organization be able to absorb the cost, and are there any alternatives?

What about your salespeo-ple? Very few are exempt from minimum wage and overtime. This session will teach you what you need to know to comply with the various labor laws.

Finally, the IRS and many states view independent contractors as a form of tax evasion. If you use freelance writers, government agencies can’t wait to slap you with crippling fines for misclas-sification. Is compliance even possible?

James McDonoughHuman Resources Research

Consultant, MSEC

BIO: As a Human Resources Research Consultant, James McDonough conducts re-search on a wide variety of topics to assist staff and mem-bers of Mountain States Em-ployers Council. He also writes articles, blogs and conducts presentations and trainings on various HR and business top-ics. Previously, James worked for 10 years in the public sector as Executive Director of Corporate Training and work-force program manager at the Community College of Denver and Arapahoe County. TOPIC:Beyond the Margins: Recruitment and Retaining

Many employers complain that finding and keeping great employees is tough. Maybe tougher than ever for news-papers in the age of digital media. What’s going on and how can employers effectively respond?

Learn new strategies to build a strong team in 2016 and beyond

Ethics & Legal Employee relations

Elizabeth SkewesAssociate professor in Journal-ism and Media Studies at CU

BIO: Elizabeth A. Skewes research focuses on media sociology and news practices, the media’s role in electoral politics, and politics in popular culture. She also is working on new research involving media coverage of mass tragedies and the victims of those events. TOPIC:Newspaper ethics in the digital age

Steve ZansbergAttorney at Levine, Sullivan,

Koch and Schulz, LLP:

BIO: For two decades, Zans-berg has represented media companies, online publishers, and individuals in defending claims based upon content, fighting subpoenas, and seek-ing access to government information and proceedings. He represented the national news media in connection with coverage of the Aurora theater shooting case, the Oklahoma City bombing trials, and the Kobe Bryant rape prosecu-tion, and he secured access to public records related to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey and the shooting at Colum-bine High School. Steve also litigates copyright and trade-mark matters. TOPIC:Law and libel in social media and in print

Web presence

#CPAPressOn


CPA staffers are currently researching and crafting a proposal to separate the boards. The CPA board and general membership will discuss the idea during the 10 a.m. May 13 annual meeting, and if approved, a separate SYNC2 board could be in place by January 2017.

Until then, CPA is seeking mem-bership feedback.

“CPA and SYNC2 have gone through a lot of changes over the past year and a half, and this is an-

other big change,” said Jerry Raehal, CPA and SYNC2 chief executive officer. “We want to make sure that one, people are informed, and two, people have their voice heard one way or another. At the end of the day, we want our membership to understand what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and to let us know what they think.”

CPA has 11 board members. Staffers are considering proposals for SYNC2 to have a five- or seven-member board, with two to three CPA directors carrying over.

Raehal estimates the idea of having two boards was debated for

months by the current 11-member board, and there are concerns.

“The biggest concern is, do we have enough volunteers to make up two separate boards?” he said.

“It’s been a fascinating debate. … There has also been concern about the CPA board giving up power. But, in general, I think the over-arching (sentiment) is (board mem-bers) feel good about the concept. I can’t say all the board members feel that way because they don’t.”

Beecher Threatt, co-publisher of the Ouray County Plaindealer and a CPA board member, said she sup-ports splitting the boards, following

legal advice.“Anytime an attorney recom-

mends something, I think you should take it seriously,” she said. “And I do see a potential for conflict of interest between the two entities, and also a potential for one having to take on the liability of another, if it’s determined that they’re actually the same entity because they have the same board.”

Threatt said she sees potential for CPA and SYNC2 to grow by hav-ing two separate boards.

“We can have some overlap between the two boards, and I think we would get people who are more

advertising and business oriented to serve on the SYNC2 board,” she said. “The CPA board could be more geared toward the editorial side.”

Raehal said a separate SYNC2 board could focus more on revenue enhancement, and provide the orga-nization more attention.

Either way, he believes the organizations will emerge from the debate stronger.

“Even if it doesn’t happen, if the second board isn’t created, I think we’ve acknowledged some of the (SYNC2) concerns through this process,” he said.

SYNC2

Continued from page 1

It’s those types of insights, along with an examination of industry changes in the years between shootings, that Simpson and other Post panelists will share with the public May 13 at the newspaper. The event kicks off a series running throughout the year around the state.

The Pulitzer Project is a joint effort — partners include the Post, Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journal-ists and the Colorado Springs Gazette — to bring Pulitzer winners to Colorado commu-nities for showcases on the state’s excellence in journalism. Details about the series, includ-ing confirmed speakers, are being finalized. Additional dates are June 16 in Colorado Springs, Sept. 15 in Fort Collins, and late September in Grand Junction.

The series commemorates this year as the Pulitzer’s centennial, a milestone that “offers a unique opportunity to focus worldwide at-tention on the best of American journalism,” Pulitzer administrators reported. “It is an op-portunity not only to celebrate the Prizes’ his-tory, but also to spark a national conversation about how we, collectively, can strengthen the values represented by the Prizes as we move into a new era.”

Jerry Raehal, CPA chief executive officer, said there are a few core messages he hopes the public takes home from the Pulitzer series.

“Hopefully it shines through that journal-ism still matters, that what newspapers are doing has a significant impact on the commu-nity, a far-reaching impact,” Raehal said. “And that newspapers continue to be the living his-tory of our society, and they are the ones that dedicate their resources and people to these community changing and defining stories.”

The primary theme for the May 13 Post panel will be changes in reporting and the newspaper industry in the 13 years between the mass shootings at Columbine High School and Century 16 movie theater in Aurora.

The differences, Simpson said, include the migration of news from print to digital, social media’s influence, and the reduction, in some cases dramatically, in newsroom staffing.

For the Post, there was also a shift in com-petition. The rival Rocky Mountain News, which won its own Pulitzer for Columbine in breaking news photography, was shuttered in 2009.

“In 1999, we were a daily paper competing against another daily paper, by and large, and to some extent, local and national TV,” he said. “Now, you’re competing against every-body — everybody with a website is your competitor, so in a way, the competition has not diminished.”

In 2006, seven years post-Columbine, the Post had 310 newsroom staffers. Today, the number is 135, making the newspaper “a shadow of our former selves in terms of just raw numbers,” Simpson said.

As most newspaper editors and executives

can attest, staff reductions require “harder and harder choices,” he said. The Post, he added, didn’t hesitate in allocating resources neces-sary to thoroughly cover Columbine and Aurora, major events felt deeply in Denver and throughout Colorado.

“It’s a never-ending puzzle you have to solve of how much do we devote to this story and what do we have left to cover everything

else,” Simpson said. “You make the best choices you can. Certainly, for a story of the scope of Columbine and Aurora, I don’t think there was any doubt that we would throw whatever resources we felt necessary to cover those. They were the stories of the day.”

Raehal said industry changes — the print to digital transition, and diminishing resourc-es, specifically — that will be discussed May 13 at the Post can help provide a blueprint, of sorts, that other newspapers can emulate.

“As journalists, we can choose to look (and lament) at our resources … or we can embrace it and say, ‘Look at how many great ways we can tell a story now and how many platforms we can reach people at,’” he said. “As we go through this Pulitzer project, the thing that’s interesting to me, particularly with the Post one, is that with Columbine it was print (centric) and they addressed it that way. With Aurora, you had social media at play, and it changed the dynamic entirely.”

The Post panel might also give audience members a look at the Columbine and Aurora stories not so prominently told — that of the emotional toll the work took on reporters.

Simpson said Post staffers, first and

foremost, felt a responsibility to tell the story accurately and responsibly. However, Col-umbine and Aurora were always seemingly changing with new angles and questions emerging.

“We were, as reporters, constantly in the position of needing to call people for victim reactions to whatever the news of the day was,” he said. “And that was certainly taking a toll on the people we were calling, obviously, but it was also taking a toll on us as reporters. We dreaded seeing an editor coming toward our desk because we knew it was going to be, ‘We need victim reaction on such and such.’”

Several weeks into the Columbine cover-age, he said, the newspaper brought in coun-selors, who helped the journalists reconcile their professional responsibilities with the emotional turmoil covering the story was creating.

“People thought maybe they weren’t being professional because they were emotionally affected by this,” Simpson said. “… What the counselors pointed out was that everybody was going through this and it was perfectly normal. Just knowing we weren’t alone in hav-ing difficulty with the trauma was helpful.”

PULITZER


Photo courtesy of the Denver Post

Chantel Blunk, wife of Jonathan Blunk, waits on the tarmac at Denver International Airport as her husband’s body is prepared to be flown to Reno, Nevada, for his full military funeral. Blunk, a five-year U.S. Navy veteran, was killed when James Holmes opened fire at a crowded movie theater.

If you go …What: Pulitzer Presentation at the Denver PostWhen: 7:30 p.m. May 13Where: Denver Post auditorium Cost: Free Transportation: Busses available to shuttle people from the conven-tion to the Denver Post building.

CONFIRMED FUTURE EVENTSColorado Springs, Fort Collins and Grand Junction


So it makes perfect sense. It’s something people care about, they want more information about it and I think it’s a good thing for our Office of Marijuana Policy that there is that media interest in our work.

We’re assuming you have staff to help you monitor and report on news pertinent to your job as governor. But as a private citizen, where do you get your news – print, web, TV, radio, mobile – and what percentages of each do you read or enjoy?

I have always been a print person. The Denver Post I always read on paper. It gives me such pleasure to turn the pages. I look at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times online.

And if I get home early enough, I like to look at one of the local TV stations for their news, especially if we are aware that they are

carrying a local story. I like to see how our TV stations cover local policy issues.

You’re intelligent, candid, organized, focused, industrious, curi-ous and seem to truly care about people. Ever have any thoughts of being a journalist?

Well part of what attracted me to being a journalist was I thought it was cool. Back then, when I was a kid in college, I thought I would never have a girlfriend.

So being a journalist seemed cool because you got to be a writer, and to a skinny guy with thick glasses and acne, that seemed like a

way to make myself more attractive, and plus I’d get to meet really interesting people and deal with important issues.

Gil Spencer was my little league baseball coach; he went on to win a couple of Pulitzers at the Trentonian and one at the Daily News and he was just a really exciting, cool guy.

I’ve given it a lot of thought, and despite the various ups and downs of my life, I’ve always had a suspicion that I could have been a good journalist.

What goals for the coming year do you have that would especially interest our state newspapers?

This whole education revamp we’re doing – creating more appren-ticeships, what we call experiential learning – I think that’s a big deal. We’re working with the Markle Foundation and LinkedIn to build a digital platform on which kids can create a living resume.

As they learn a new skill – whether it’s how to do inventory at WalMart, how to do customer service at Starbucks or how to write copy for a newspaper – once they get trained, they can add it to this digital record of accomplishments that can be shared with potential employers.

I think that’s a good thing for everybody and I hope it will get a lot of interest from reporters.

10 QUESTIONS


QA

QA

QA

Courtesy photo

Gov. John Hickenlooper poses for a photo.

TELLURIDE NEWSPAPERS, INC., SEEKS A FULL-TIME ASSOCIATE EDITOR.

Telluride Newspapers, Inc., publisher of the award-winning Telluride Daily Planet and The Watch, is seeking a full-time Associate Editor.

The candidate who gets the job will have solid writing and editing skills, a strong work ethic and the ability to juggle multiple tasks. We are seeking a team player with a willing-ness to communicate well with colleagues and community members. Besides report-ing, responsibilities may include pulling wire stories, organizing content, copy editing, fielding phone calls, helping oversee free-lancers, and covering everything from public meetings and politics and business to sports games, regional energy issues and the lively festivals that unfold in this beautiful mountain town.

Command of AP style is a must, average or better photo skills are required and at least two years experience at a daily paper and journalism degree are preferred. The Planet publishes Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, while the regional Watch publishes on Thursdays. Telluride Newspapers also pub-lishes several successful glossy magazines throughout the year.

Please send cover letter, resume, refer-ences and 5 clips to [email protected]

EDITOR WANTED AT TAOS NEWSIn the quickly-changing world of multi-

media, we have an immediate opening for an

editor for a 10,000-circulation, family-owned weekly newspaper located in beautiful Taos, New Mexico. The Taos News has won the General Excellence award from the New Mexico Press Association 14 times in the last 15 years and was voted the best weekly newspaper in the United States by the Na-tional Newspaper Association in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.

Unparalleled opportunity to do good work, contribute to exciting changes, and have fun. You’ll work hard, too. Searching for a versa-tile, smart, collaborative editor to oversee a staff of nine full-time employees. Applicant must have a nose for hard news, strong design and headline writing skills, love com-munity journalism and work well with a team of professional journalists.

A degree in journalism, communications or related field is required, plus a minimum three years of newsroom experience. Our priorities are a passion for news and commu-nity, detailed planning skills and excitement about the multiple platforms for reaching audience. This is a full-time position with full benefits: 401-k plan, medical/dental/vision, vacation/holiday pay, plus spa membership. Come live, work and play in one of New Mex-ico’s most beautiful cities with a thriving arts community and unlimited outdoor recreation opportunities. Send your resume, cover letter and three references to: Chris Baker, Publish-er, The Taos News, 226 Albright Street, Taos, New Mexico 87571. No phone calls.

See full job listing at https://www.journal-ismjobs.com/job-listings/1628325

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