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FEBRUARY 2019

WPA Bulletin2121 Evans Avenue • Cheyenne, WY 82001 • 307/635-3905 • Fax 307/635-3912 • [email protected] • www.wyopress.org

Calendarof Events

MARCH 4NNA’s Better Newspaper Contest early bird entry

incentive deadline

MARCH 10-16Sunshine Week

June 82019 WPA Foundation

Golf OutingBuff alo (Wyo.) Golf Club

Nov. 4Wyoming High School

Student Press Association Convention

Central Wyoming CollegeRiverton, Wyo.

JAN. 23-25, 2020WPA Annual Convention

Ramkota Hotel & Conference Center

Casoer, Wyo.

SEE PUBLIC NOTICES PRINTED IN ALL OF

WYOMING’S NEWSPAPERS Visit

www.wyopublicnotices.com or

www.publicnoticeads.com/wy

WYOMING

PRESS

ASSOCIATION

The Wyoming Press Association is requir-ing member newspapers to send their USPS Statement of Ownership for the WPA directory listing. The WPA directory will now include circula-tion from line 15c and 16a of the statement, which is total paid print distribution and paid electron-ic copies. Recent statements from October 2018 must be sent to the WPA offi ce by March 1, 2019. The decision to include paid digital replica and statement of ownership circulation numbers was made during the January board of directors meeting. It was the result of an ongoing discus-sion of the importance of reporting newspaper circulation numbers more accurately.

WyCAN price change March 1 The WPA Board also voted to increase the price of the WyCan program during their win-ter meeting. No one in the WPA offi ce or any of the board members could recall the last time the program had seen a rate increase. As of March 1, the program will change

from $135 to $150. The new price will put the program in league with other similar state press association classifi ed programs.

The importance of dues Invoices for 2019 WPA membership dues were sent February 6. Besides the base mem-bership dues, the total includes the scholarship fund, legislative action fund and legal defense fund. Membership dues are determined by square-inch advertising rates and circulation. The base dues allow the WPA to continue its mission of promoting and fostering the general welfare of the newspaper industry in Wyoming. Members may also have been invoiced for NNA dues. The WPA would ask that members remit payment by March 31. Kindly be advised that according to the WPA By-Laws, delinquent dues may be collect-ed for the association through its business affi l-iate, the Wyoming Press Advertising Service, which places advertising with its members.

DIRECTORY, DUES AND WYCANS, OH MY!

WINNING PHOTOS -- Named sweepstakes win-ners at the WPA’s Annual Convention in January were, from left, “Elkhead in convertible,” by Ryan Dorgan, Jackson Hole News&Guide (also named photo of the year); “Tearful farewell,” by Jacob Byk, Wyoming Tribune Eagle; and “Watermelon contest,” by Andrew D. Brosig, Tor-rington Telegram.

FEBRUARY 2019 WPA BULLETIN

2019 WPA BOARD MEMBERS

Kristen Czaban, PresidentThe Sheridan Press

P.O. Box 2006 � Sheridan, WY 82801(307) 672-2431/Fax (307) 672-7950Email: [email protected]

Louie Mullen, Vice-presidentGreen River Star

Box 580� Green River, WY 82935(307) 875-3103/Fax (307) 875-8778

Email: [email protected]

Stephanie Bonnar, Sec.-Treas.Newcastle News Letter JournalBox 40 � Newcastle, WY 82701

(307) 746-2777/Fax (307) 746-2660Email: [email protected]

Jen Sieve-HicksBuffalo Bulletin

P.O. Box 730 � Buffalo, WY 82834(307) 684-2223/Fax (307) 684-7431

[email protected]

Lara LoveThermopolis Independent Record

PO Box 31 � Thermopolis, WY 82443(307) 864-2328/Fax (307) 864-5711


Rob MortimoreTorrington Telegram

2025 Main � Torrington, WY 82240(307) 532-2184/Fax (307) 532-2283


Kevin OlsonJackson Hole News&Guide

P.O. Box 7445 � Jackson, WY 83002(307) 733-2047/Fax (307) 733-2138Email: [email protected]

Rory PalmAdams Publishing Group

P.O. Box 1286 � Cheyenne, WY 82003(307) 633-3165/Fax (307) 633-3191Email: [email protected]

Jade StevensonRock Springs Rocket-Miner

PO Box 98 � Rock Springs, WY 82902(307) 362-3736/Fax (307) 382-2763


Mark TesoroKemmerer Gazette

PO Box 30 � Kemmerer, WY 83101(307) 877-3347/Fax (307) 877-3736


Matt Adelman, NNA ChairDouglas Budget

PO Box 109 � 310 Center St.Douglas, WY 82633


Milton Ontiveroz, Assoc. ChairUW Institutional CommunicationsDept. 3226, 1000 E. Univ. Ave.

Laramie, WY 82071(307) 766-6709/Fax (307) 766-6729

[email protected]

Cindy Price SchultzUW Dept. of Communication and Journalism

Dept. 3904, 1000 E. University Ave.Laramie, WY 82071


Ken SmithUW Liaison Emeritus


STAFFDarcie Hoffland, Executive Director

Cec Moats, Deputy DirectorJosie McDaniel, Office Assistant

Listening to keynote speaker Chuck Under-wood during the 120th annual WPA Conven-tion last month, many of us chuckled at familiar characteristics he de-scribed for each gener-ation. When he fi nally talked about millennials,

I grinned to see so many from that generation represented in the audience. Our future is bright. Yes, I am one of those millennials who has bothered you at work for the last 10 years or so. Having graduated from high school in 2004 and Northwestern University in 2008, I’m some-where on the older end of that generation, but certainly embody its characteristics. I’m addicted to tech, but love to escape from cellphone service and Wi-Fi. I have a short attention span, get restless often and crave vari-ety and change. But, as a millennial, I am also optimistic and enthusiastic. My generation is uncertain about our future, but hopeful. We look to the generations who came before for wisdom and

guidance. And, yes, I’m close with my parents. Who cares and why does this matter for WPA? I’m a team player and I believe in activism and idealism. I am eager to continue lobbying our legislators to protect our ideals as guardians of free speech and watchdogs of government. I also see the need and desire to keep our member-ship more in the loop on what is happening in the Legislature and more active in our association as a whole. If you, as a part of our membership have ideas regarding what else needs to be done, please let me know. I’m happy and eager to tack-le whatever needs tackling. If you attended the convention last month, thank you. I hope you brought home some new ideas. Darcie and the entire WPA team worked hard to make it run smoothly. We should all be proud of our new director and the great strides she has made, particularly in sales for our asso-ciation. Thank you for the opportunity to serve the stellar member newspapers in Wyoming. I look forward to 2019 and working to maximize our generational strengths.

MAXIMIZING GENERATIONAL STRENGTHS

Kristen CzabanWPA President

CHEYENNE (WNE) The Senate’s public records bill passed Tuesday (Feb. 19) on fi nal reading in the House of Representatives and now heads back to the Senate for a concurrence vote. Senate File 57 was approved on a 554 vote in the House. The bill would formalize the public re-cords request process, including actual deadlines for responses, and create a public records om-budsman as a new executive branch position. SF 57 saw a massive rewrite in the Senate committee process at the last minute, which re-moved substantial fi nancial penalties and pos-sible incarceration for violating the proposed law. One of the big back and forth battles in the House debate was whether a requester should be awarded legal fees if they had to take a govern-ment agency to court to gain access to a record. One fi nal attempt was made to amend SF 57 to allow a judge to award legal fees to a requester if they deemed it prudent. But that failed to gain enough support to be added to the bill. Rep. Tyler Lindholm, Sundance, said he was open to studying the legal fees issue during the interim. But he didn’t want to see SF 57 lose the support of numerous governmental groups

that had been won over by the substantial chang-es made to the bill in the Senate. SF 57 would require government agencies to respond to a public records request within sev-en days of the request being made. The bill gives agencies 30 days to produce the records, unless good cause exists for withholding them. The om-budsman position created by SF 57 would help mediate disputes over records request. Requestors may also go to district court to sue for access to the records. (Update, Feb. 25, 1 p.m. -- After the House

approved the bill last week it went back to the

Senate. The Senate unanimously rejected the

amendments made by the House to make the om-

budsman position permanent. The Senate called

for a Joint Conference Committee to meet with a

similar House committee to work out disagree-

ments. On Friday afternoon the Senate commit-

tee approved the permanent ombudsman posi-

tion, however, changed language in the bill from

“government agency” to “government entity”

throughout. The bill is now waiting on a decision

from the House committee).

RECORDS BILL WINS FINAL HOUSE APPROVAL

2019 WPA COMMITTEES

Hall of Fame

Darcie Hoffland (Chair)Wyoming Press Association

Mark TesoroKemmerer Gazette

Pat SchmidtPast President

Ken SmithUW Liaison Emeritus

NNA

Louie Mullen (Chair)Green River Star

Matt AdelmanDouglas Budget

Toby BonnerPowell Tribune

Robb Hicks

Buffalo Bulletin

Legislative

Rob Mortimore (Chair)Torrington Telegram

Bob BonnarNewcastle News Letter Journal

Jim WoodWyoming Newspapers, Inc.

Kristen CzabanThe Sheridan Press

Jen Sieve-HicksBuffalo Bulletin

Audience/ Marketing

Kevin Olson (Chair)Jackson Hole News&Guide

Rory PalmAdams Publishing Group

Stephanie BonnarNewcastle News Letter Journal

Jade StevensonRock Springs Rocket-Miner

Cathy ClineRiverton Ranger

Contest

Rory Palm (Chair)

Lara LoveThermopolis Independent

Record

Jade Stevenson

Rob Mortimore

Convention

Jen Sieve-Hicks (Chair)

Kevin Olson

Lara Love

Milton OntiverozAssociates Group Chair

Budget

Kristen Czaban (Chair)Louie Mullen

Stephanie BonnarMark Tesoro

WPA BULLETIN FEBRUARY 2019 PAGE 3

2019 CONVENTION WRAP-UP The 120th Annual WPA Convention saw more than 160 attendees this year in Cheyenne. If you’re looking for a list of contest winners, or want to see the photos that took fi rst, visit the WPA website. Also, be sure to check out our facebook page to see our own photos from the entire weekend. In addition to celebrating winners of the Pace-maker and Major Award Contests, and the Founda-tion Silent Auction winners, the following honors were awarded: • Mike Sellet was inducted into the Wyoming Press Association Foundation Journalism Hall of Fame. Sellet was the former editor, publisher and owner of the Jackson Hole News. Over the course of four decades Sellet saw his paper become a win-ner of numerous state and national awards. His commitment to excellence had a signifi cant impact on his community in Jackson and his colleagues in Wyoming. • Jim Angell, former executive director of the WPA, received the Milton Chilcot Award for his 20 years of defending access to public information in the state of Wyoming. Presenting Angell with his award at convention were past winners Bruce

Moats, Ann Turner, and Jim Wood. Angell is the sixth person to receive the award since its incep-tion in the mid-eighties, including Milton Chilcott. • Mark Davis, Powell Tribune, became the fi rst winner of the Wyoming EPSCoR Best of Science Reporting Award. The award, funded by a National Science Foundation grant, included a plaque and a check for $500. Dr. Kristen Landreville, associate professor of communication and journalism at the University Wyoming said, “Mark communicated the relevancy and importance of the science to the audience while also demonstrating a strong com-mand of the science process and relayed scientifi c evidence in a meaningful, understandable way to the public.” • Katie Kull from the Wyoming Tribune Ea-gle was the winner of the Jim Tiemann Award. She won $250 and a trip to the State Bar convention. Also, we were delighted to have as part of convention this year 24 students from the Univer-sity of Wyoming J-Term Community Journalism. Thank you to all our members who volunteered to teach the college tract. These workshops were open to members and associates as well.

HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE -- Former publisher Mike Sellett (right, and on screen) is hand-ed a plaque from Kevin Olson, Jackson Hole News&Guide publisher. Sellett was inducted into the WPA Foundation Hall of Fame at the January convention. A duplicate plaque will hang with previous inductees at the UW De-partment of Communication and Journalism.

SCIENCE AWARD WINNER -- Mark Davis of the Powell Tri-bune is handed the fi rst EPSCoR Science Reporting Award from Kristen Landreville, associate professor of communication and journalism at UW

DEFENDER OF PUBLIC ACCESS -- Jim Angell (in cape) received the Milton Chilcott Award at the WPA convention. He is pictured with previous winners Ann Turner, Gillette News-Record; Jim Wood, Wyoming Newspapers, Inc.; and WPA Attorney Bruce Moats.

By Milton OntiverozWPA Associates Chair Well, another Wyoming Press Association (WPA) Winter Meeting for the Associates group is in the rear-view mirror, and we already are looking forward to how we can do things even better for the state’s public information offi cers. I just completed my fi rst year as the Associ-

ates chair to represent the communications specialists on the WPA Board of Directors. My goals this year were to gain more members and to grow the Associates contest with more participation, not only at the winter convention, but also contest entries. We saw small gains in all areas; however, I’d like to grow it even more in the coming year. One new feature for the convention that I suggested to the WPA board was a reception that would be sponsored by the Asso-ciate members. The reception was met favorably by the board and was added to the WPA’s regular conference schedule. We had a great turnout among the newspaper folks, our group and guest host Laurie Nichols, UW’s president. Associate members -- the Wyoming Business Council, Ware-house Twenty One and the president’s offi ce -- sponsored the re-ception. I would like to see this reception added yearly to the con-vention schedule, because it builds a relationship among the state’s newspaper representatives and public relations personnel. Even though we only meet as a group each January, there is no reason why Associate members can’t communicate with one another during the year. If you have any concerns or suggestions, please contact me. I will again appoint a subcommittee to help guide the Associates group, plus rely on these volunteers to help put together a meaningful and productive set of workshops for the 2020 Associates conference in Casper. At last month’s WPA convention we had about 30 Associate members registered for our workshops -- which was a small in-crease from the year before -- but I suspect weather the day before kept a few participants from driving on dicey highway conditions along the I-80 corridor. Our workshops drew rave reviews from participants. And because we had good discussion throughout the day, our annual meeting had to be cut short because of time constraints. Among discussions were: -- How to grow membership. Participants said they would contact others in the business to get them to join the Associates

group. Ontiveroz mentioned that Kim Deti at the Wyoming De-partment of Health has been helpful in that eff ort, by building the public relations group in Cheyenne. -- Ontiveroz said each summer he goes around the state to vis-it the media and will attempt to meet with other private businesses to ask them to join the Associates group. -- The Associates were asked to think about adding new cate-gories for next year’s contest, and it was suggested video as a new addition for next year. AARP’s Tom Lacock will work with Ali Grossman from UW Institutional Marketing to discuss how the category should be addressed. It also was suggested that digital campaigns might be a good category to add as well. -- As a future workshop session, learning how to produce a good media release was suggested. As I mentioned, I will select volunteers to help with next win-ter’s workshop off erings, and these latest suggestions will certain-ly be part of that discussion. Also, the WPA Foundation summer golf outing, which has a reception on Friday evening and its golf tournament Saturday, draws a small number of folks. If Associate members would like to meet at that time, I’m open for suggestions on what we could do. It will be held June 7-8 in Buff alo. If you have any suggestions/concerns about the Associates group, or how to recruit new members, please feel free to contact me at (307) 766-6709 or [email protected].

PAGE 4 FEBRUARY 2019 WPA BULLETIN

NEW RECEPTION A SUCCESS; WORKSHOPS LAUDED

WINNING TEAM -- 2018 WPA President Mark Tesoro (right) was on hand to give Associate members their awards at the January convention. Pictured are Andy Greenman and Baylie Evans from the Wyoming Business Council.

During its meeting at the 2019 convention in January, the WPA Foundation Board voted to fund six full ride scholarships to the 2020 convention. Each scholarship covers travel expens-es, lodging, meals, and registration to all workshops and events. Through the new scholarship program, the Foundation hopes to show support for and ensure the highest degree of journalism in the state of Wyoming through education. Six names were pulled from a hat that contained pledges from

34 newspapers. Pledges to the foundation were made during the General Election Meeting. Winners include the Platte County Re-cord Times, Thermopolis Independent Record, Green River Star, News Letter Journal, Glenrock Independent and the Lander Jour-nal. The WPA Foundation also paid for the Pacemaker Award dis-plays that hung on the walls of the convention center, showcasing the highest quality of work from WPA newspapers in 2018.

WPAF CREATES, AWARDS SCHOLARSHIPS TO MEMBERS


BULLETIN TO HOST “REPORT FOR AMERICA” JOURNALIST The Buff alo Bulletin has been selected to participate in Report for America’s inno-vative journalism and community service initiative and will host a journalist who will seek to improve and expand news coverage of energy production in Johnson County. Report for America recruits and trains young journalists and deploys them into news organizations across the country, to provide Americans with the information they need to improve their communities and rebuild trust in the media. The Re-port for America corps member selected to work in Buff alo will begin in June and spend one year covering the impacts of energy development in Johnson County, including economic, political, recreational and environmental “We are thrilled to be part of a program to enhance local news reporting across the country, because we believe that strong local news reporting is critical to vibrant communities,” said Jen Sieve-Hicks, exec-utive editor of the Buff alo Bulletin. “Our Report for America journalist will help us to better tell the stories that matter most to

the people of Johnson County.” Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofi t news organization, and it has received funding from Google News Lab, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Facebook, the Len-fest Institute for Journalism, the Galloway Family Foundation and the Select Equity Fund. Corps members’ salaries are fund-ed jointly by the host newsroom and The GroundTruth Project. Among Report for America’s 2019 news organizations, spanning 26 states and territories, were the Forum of Far-go-Moorhead in North Dakota; the Pulitzer

Prize-winning Cincinnati Enquirer and As-sociated Press. Among the 60 reporting po-sitions in the 2019 corps, 18 will be placed in non-profi t organizations, three in weekly newspapers, seven in public radio stations and more than two dozen in daily newspa-pers. “The overwhelming response from both news organizations and prospective reporters is thrilling,” said Steven Wald-man, president and co-founder of Report for America. “Clearly there’s a growing recognition that the crisis in local journal-ism poses a real threat to democracy and to the health of communities.”

NEW U.S. CITIZEN -- Powell Tribune Gener-al Manager Toby Bonner shared with WPA convention attendees -- to the surprise of his wife -- the news that Tawnya had re-cently become a U.S. citizen.

FEBRUARY 2019 WPA BULLETIN

SPJ CHAPTER TO FORM IN WYOMINGFORUM IN CHEYENNE FIRST IN A SERIES OF STATEWIDE EVENTS

By Ed OtteSociety for Professional Journalists

Support for reviving the Society of Professional Jour-nalists Wyoming Pro Chapter was overwhelming at a Jan.

19 meeting during the Wyoming Press Association convention. The Wyoming chapter is inactive, but Jackson Hole News&Guide Deputy Editor Melissa Cassutt is leading the eff ort to have the chapter reinstated by the SPJ board of directors. Information about the eff ort must be submitted to SPJ headquarters by late March, so the board can review the paperwork at its April meeting in Indianapolis. The group of reporters and editors that met on

Jan. 19 discussed the desire for the chapter to provide networking and programming for Wyoming print, broadcast and digital journalists and journalism edu-cators. The chapter can include professional and stu-dent journalists. A March 11 forum with media law attorney Bruce Moats at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne will be the fi rst program in a series of statewide events to attract new SPJ members and re-vive the chapter. The 90-minute forum, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by Wingspan Student Media at LCCC and the Society of Profesion-al Journalists. Wingspan will carry a livestream of the forum at LCCCWingspan.com. The program begins at noon. To join, current and prospective SPJ members should contact Cassutt at [email protected]. Melissa Cassutt

Bruce Moats


See COMMUNITY OUTREACH page 9

COMBATING FAKE NEWS THROUGH COMMUNITY OUTREACHBy Jennifer Peters, ReporterTrends and Insights

To help combat the confusion brought on by fake news, Honolulu Civil Beat is opening its doors to the public to help teach them news literacy. Civil Beat was founded in 2010 by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of

eBay and First Look Media. The site began as a local watchdog journalism outlet that focused on storytelling that wasn’t being done by Honolulu’s local newspapers and TV stations. Since then, the site has grown and now has reporters covering all of Hawaii, as well as a full-time Washington correspondent. But where Civil Beat really stands out is in its eff orts in com-munity outreach. “What we’re doing here and on a statewide basis is trying to get out into the community, not just writing stories and publishing them, but trying to do more things that make us a good communi-ty partner,” says Patti Epler, editor and general manager for Civ-il Beat. “It’s not a normal role for a news organization, because newspapers really feel the need to be at arm’s length, but we try to do things that put us in positions to be open with the community that don’t create confl icts of interest or compromise our integrity or independence.”

When the Hawaii legislature is in session, Civil Beat will host panels with local politicians around the state to help explain the issues to the people who are impacted by them. The panels, which allow people to engage with Civil Beat reporters and Hawaii poli-ticians, typically draw more than 100 people. In addition to giving Hawaii’s citizens an up-close look at politics in the Aloha State, they’re also giving them a look inside the newsroom. “We have this thing called Member Coff ees once a month where people come to the newsrooms about what we’re do-ing and how we do things,” Epler explains. “We’re also partnered with Stony Brook University for a program called Understanding the News, and we can use their curricula for things like news liter-acy and media literacy.” Between the monthly coff ees and the news literacy program, Civil Beat is working to help their community better understand how the news gets made and how to tell if what they’re reading is quality news. “One woman asked, ‘Gosh, with all this news you can get online and on TV and bloggers, how am I supposed to fi gure out what’s legit and what’s just an ideological spin on something?’ So we decided that we could play a role in helping people navigate [the news],” Epler says. For public events on news literacy, Civil Beat tackles top-ics like the internet echo chamber and how to determine if your

By Bart PfankuchSouth Dakota News Watch

In an era of con-stant cutbacks, it can be diffi cult for

newspaper reporters to get good editing. Many experienced editors have fl ed or been forced out of a constricting industry. Some who remain are distracted by ex-panded job duties. Younger editors may not possess the experience and resulting confi -dence to aggressively edit or rework copy. Meanwhile, copy editors – long the last line of defense against poor writing -- are diminishing in number and may serve as page designers with numerous other du-ties. Opportunities for training have also been slashed or eliminated. Yet, all is not lost. Whether or not one works with a top-notch editor, the truly de-voted writer can use their skills, work ethic and commitment to quality to aggressively self-edit their copy and improve their writ-ing. Becoming a great writer is a lifelong journey and invariably begins from within. Here are some ways to eliminate er-rors, reduce wordiness and sharpen your copy on your own. A common catchphrase from my coaching sessions applies here: “Your fi rst draft is never your fi nal draft.” Intense deadline or crisis writing aside, every writ-er should review their own work more than once (possibly several times) before turn-ing it over to an editor. Printing off a hard copy and marking it up is a worthy tech-nique. Reading the piece aloud and listen-ing for clunky construction or confusing content works wonders. Underlining or highlighting each name, number and fact makes it easy to double-check for accuracy. Examine your own copy for indicators

– or what I refer to as “triggers” – that re-veal the need for a rewrite or rework. You know more editing is needed if you see any of the following: heavy use of punctuation, overly long sentences, lack of parallelism among subjects and verbs, subject-verb disagreement, lengthy separation between a subject and corresponding verb, confus-ing use of attribution, repetition of sentence structure or word usage, long introductory clauses, quirkiness or AP style errors. Sincerely ask for input or advice, lis-ten to feedback and take it to heart. Ev-ery writer has tendencies – some positive, some negative. Reread your material after the edit and look for elements repeatedly changed or cut. Ask your editor what pat-terns of weakness he or she notices in your copy and heed the advice. Learn from errors and never make the same mistake twice. If you work for a complacent or burned out editor who reads your story quickly and says, “OK, thanks a lot, have a good night,” do not hesitate to push back and force them to spend more time and give more focus to improving your copy. Be a bit of a pest if you have to. Reading a story and editing a story are not the same. Challenge yourself to expand your range and writing techniques. Try to be funny when appropriate. Seek out subjects for an in-depth, defi nitive profi le (increas-ingly a lost art in modern journalism.) Sug-gest a fi rst-person piece once in a while. Bend all the rules once you master them, such as starting with a quote, trying a one- or two-word lead, moving back and forth in time, setting a scene or beginning with the end of the story. However, never hesitate to pull the plug on a new method or technique if it simply does not work. Learn some basic concepts of eff ective writing and implement them. These include sticking to the subject-verb-object sentence

structure, avoiding jargon and high-brow or pompous words that are unfamiliar to most readers, rejecting passive voice, steering clear of adjectives and adverbs that weaken and dilute meaning, and always searching for clear, unique subjects and specifi c, ac-tive verbs. Respect your readers’ intelligence and time. Most of us have heard the old saying, “I would have written you a shorter letter but I ran out of time.” That’s true in jour-nalism, too. Cutting excess words, reduc-ing redundancy, trimming back quotes and taglines are ways to speed up copy. Write in a conversational tone, but never get too cute or clever with copy to show off or ap-pear boastful. Tell readers what is rather than what isn’t and write in the affi rmative rather than negative voice. Just stick to the facts in most cases. Be a student of the craft. Read major newspaper and magazines to see how the experienced professionals write. Emulate what you like from other publications or in the work of colleagues and be critical of your own work in comparison. Go online and read coaching articles like this one. Consistently ask to attend training confer-ences and eventually even the most frugal editor or publisher will oblige. Visit web-sites that feature writing and reporting tips and techniques (Poynter.org is a fi ne exam-ple.) Discuss writing with your colleagues and challenge one another to improve. Writing eff ectively almost never hap-pens by luck. Increasingly, it is up to writ-ers to put in the time and eff ort on their own to improve their ability to communicate and write with clarity, concision and fl air. In the end, readers will benefi t and so will you. Bart Pfankuch is an investigative re-

porter for South Dakota News Watch, on-

line at sdnewswatch.org. Write to him at

[email protected].


BETTER WRITING WITH BARTLOOK IN THE MIRROR TO FIND YOUR BEST EDITOR

Join ASNE and the Reporters Committee in the annual nationwide celebration of access to public information and what it means for you and your community. Go to http://sunshineweek.org for columns, editorial cartoons, graphics and other resources.

MARCH 10-16, 2019

news is trustworthy. They’re also in the process of putting together a new section of their website that will off er readers tips on avoiding fake news and fi nding the real facts. “It’s stuff we (journalists) do all the time,” Epler says. “Read the ‘About Us’ page, look and see where the website gets their money. There are so many things like that that people don’t generally think about [when reading the news].” Another part of their strategy to sup-port real news is to write a weekly column about their own work and dissect what they’ve done. While this column has not

yet launched, they currently have a me-dia watchdog column called Reader Rep, which takes a look at stories reported across Hawaii media and dives into the good and bad aspects of the coverage of diff erent is-sues each week. “We want to help guide people through this barrage of news that comes at them from all diff erent directions,” Epler says. She advises other local news outlets to follow Civil Beat’s lead. “My advice is to become part of the community and not always be at arm’s length,” she says. “We can really help the community, and in a

way that’s not going to step over any kind of ethical line.” Epler also believes that as a nonprofi t news organization, it’s important to support the community that supports Civil Beat. “It struck me that if we’re going to ask the community to support us, we should fi nd ways to support the community that go beyond just writing stories,” she says. “It’s still evolving, but it does spring from wanting to really help out the people who help us. We’re calling it ‘journalism plus,’ because it’s something that goes just a little bit beyond [typical journalism].”

COMMUNITY OUTREACH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7


A TRADITION -- Casper Star-Tribune Editor Josh Wolfson follows in the footsteps of many, many newspaper folks over the years as he drinks champagne (?) from the trophy cup. Among other awards, the newspaper won the overall General Excellence Award.

LOOKING BACK AT THE 2019 ANNUAL CONVENTION

ADVERTISING WINNER -- Brian Martin, managing editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, accepts the second place award for advertising excellence. Among its major awards, the newspaper placed fi rst for typo-graphic excellence, second for photo excellence and second for general excellence.

ANOTHER TRADITION -- WPA members closed convention with another tradition - the jam session. Playing guitar from left are, Jim Angell, Wyoming News Exchange; Margret Boydston, Buff alo Bulletin; and Bradly Boner, Jackson Hole News&Guide.

By Peter WagnerCreative House Print Media Consultants

Smaller ads sold mostly to local-ly-owned businesses are a part of a com-munity paper’s DNA. There weren’t any supermarkets, department stores or auto-mobile dealerships when the majority of midwestern newspapers at the turn of the last century. I have a framed copy of the January 1, 1873 Sheldon Mail hanging on the wall of my offi ce. What is most surprising is the largest display ad in the now 145-year-old publication is a one column by 3.5 inches.More importantly, all the ads in that fi rst edition wouldn’t fi ll a half of a broadsheet page today. When my wife and I put out our fi rst publication, The Golden Shopper, our larg-est ad was a half-page on the front page. Most of the remaining pages were fi lled with 2 x 3, 2 x 5 and occasional quarter page ads. The nationally controlled fi rms all felt they had to advertise in the much older, more established newspaper. We were thankful for those locally purchased small ads, however, and some-how we survived. In the boom times be-fore corporate inserts, we regularly printed four process color broadside pages for our local Hy-Vee grocery store. That too, dis-appeared, and we still survived. We were thankful for them when we had them, how-ever, and we survived. The truth is our publishing industry is changing in ways that is making it diffi -cult to sustain and be profi table in both the paid circulation and free distribution pub-lishing business.The same is true of most

other forms of local business. But, as long as papers have a commitment to providing solid local news and information to our community, newspapers and shoppers alike will fi nd new opportunities to sell print ad-vertising to an appreciative local market. Communities now are a local supplier of professionally written and edited infor-mation. Study after study has concluded communities need a printed publication to fl ourish. Without a competent local paper, communities suff er the eventual loss of everything from main street retail synergy to in-town grade and high schools to much needed sales and property tax revenues. A study by the North Carolina School of Media and Journalism found that more than 1,300 communities have completely lost their sources of local news. The local printed paper must continue to exist and it can through persistence, creativity and a commitment of the local ownership. The secret of such success is “Telling your story!” For newspapers that means both sharing all the important local news of the community from the city chambers to the little league as well as the advertising and marketing services the publication off ers. No business has ever succeeded in “saving itself out of fi nancial diffi culty.” Most successful business leaders turn a dif-fi cult corner by increasing the material and service delivered. I was in Hawaii recently and saw an interesting large red poster in many windows on one island. It read: Here is what you did by buying from us ...1. You contributed your dollars to lo-cal economy. 2. You celebrated the unique buying opportunities of our community. 3. You helped create local employment. 4. You encouraged the building of a commu-nity. 5. You kept important tax dollars at home. 6. You benefi ted from our expertise.

7. You invested in local enterprise. 8. You made this community and all it off ers a des-tination. Everything promoted on that poster could also be said, with a bit of a twist in the wording, of the local paper. Our biggest failing as a publishing industry is we don’t tell our story strongly or often enough. If we don’t blow our own horn, who will? Michael Bugeja, author of Interper-sonal Divide in the Age of the Machine re-cently wrote: “Don’t overlook newspapers. They are the lifeblood of the community. Subscribe to your hometown paper. Go far-ther and buy gift subscriptions for your rel-atives and friends. Discuss the news face to face at the dinner table instead of on Face-book. If you have children, let them see you pouring over the pages of the paper, point-ing out stories about school, hobbies, and upcoming events you might attend. If you want to get rid of fake news support your local newspaper. It takes a village to save a local news-paper. But saving a village is worth the price of a subscription. Peter W. Wagner is founder and pub-

lisher of the award winning N’West Iowa

REVIEW and 13 additional publications.

This free monthly GET REAL newsletter is

written exclusively for State and National

Press Associations and distributed by them

to their members. To get Wagner’s free PA-

PER DOLLARS email newsletter for pub-

lishers, editors and sales managers email

him at [email protected]. The

two monthly email newsletters contain in-

formation completely diff erent than found

in Wagner’s monthly Publisher’s Auxilia-

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PEOPLE AND OTHER STUFF


PAPERS NEED PERSISTENCE, CREATIVITY AND COMMITMENT

Gary Loftus was recently hired as general manager of the Laramie Boomerang. Loftus previously worked at Nebraska’s Grand Island Independent for two decades, and has worked as publisher, manager and advertising director at a number of other papers. He replaces former Publisher Jeff Robertson. The Powell Tribune has hired Kevin Killough as its news ed-itor. Killough most recently was news director for Outliers Cre-

ative, which publishes news streams and monthly magazines in Gillette and Sheridan. Prior to that he was a reporter for the Tioga Tribune, a weekly newspaper in North Dakota’s Bakken region. He’s also worked for a daily newspaper in Gallup, New Mexico and at the Grand Forks (Neb.) Herald. Killough has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of New Mexico and a master’s in communications from University of Windsor, Canada.

Based on sales and use tax collections, total taxable sales in the state grew 9.3 percent to $5.2 billion in the third quarter of 2018. Increases occurred in most economic industries, with the larg-est growth in the mining sector (including oil and gas extraction) which experienced a year-over-year expansion of 21.1 percent, due to increased sales of equipment, supplies, and services from new energy exploration and production activity (Wyoming does not impose sales tax on the production of minerals). However, the third quarter amount in mining was still 30.7 percent less than the fi gure for the fourth quarter of 2014 – before the energy downturn. Traditionally, over one-sixth of collections are from the mining industry, therefore the changes in total sales and use tax collections in Wyoming have been greatly aff ected by the fl uctuation in mineral activities. The transportation and warehousing sector also showed fast growth of 28.7 percent. Construction was the only industry that ex-perienced a decline. Machinery and equipment leasing, and other services sectors, which support mineral extraction, also increased around 20.0 percent.

The public administration sector, which refl ects automobile sales, showed an increase of 10.2 percent over the year. The retail trade industry, the largest in terms of sales tax contribution, grew 9.0 percent. Across the state, 17 out of 23 counties experienced increases in taxable sales, led by Converse County (72.9%). Six other counties, Carbon, Crook, Platte, Campbell, Weston, and Goshen demonstrated over 20.0 percent expansions, respec-tively. Generally, counties with more oil drilling activities experi-enced faster growth. A new edition of the Wyoming Economic Summary Report is now available. This quarterly publication highlights the State’s economic conditions. The economic indicators that are discussed and graphically illustrated include employment by industry, in-come, housing, taxable sales, tourism, agriculture, and selected revenue. The current report highlights data for the third quarter of 2018 (3Q18).

See: http://eadiv.state.wy.us/wef/Economic_Summary3Q18.pdf


ECONOMIC SUMMARY REPORT FOR 2018 THIRD QUARTER

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