KEVIN ANDERSON ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE MINNESOTA NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION

Bloomington, Minn. (January 27, 2012) - Kevin Anderson, publisher of the Mille Lacs Messenger and owner of MessAge Media in Isle, Minn., was elected president of the Minnesota Newspaper Association (MNA), Friday, January 27, during the Association’s annual meeting at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Bloomington. Anderson is the 132nd president of MNA, representing 345 newspapers across the state.

“I’m honored to serve as MNA president,” said Anderson. “Working with an active board, excellent executive director Lisa Hills and the MNA central office staff gives me confidence in our ability to deliver services to our member newspapers.” Anderson noted, “Although the industry is going through a challenging time, I am confident that newspapers will remain a vital part of Minnesota communities for years to come.”

Anderson joined the Mille Lacs Messenger in 1985 as salesperson and bookkeeper. In 2001 he became publisher and co-owner of the newspaper after buying into the business with Dick Norlander who also owned the Aitkin Independent Age.

Although Anderson’s background and training is in business, he served a short stint as editor. “I have always had a strong belief in the power of newspapers and the integrity of journalism. I found a new appreciation for the workload and headaches by being editor,” Anderson said.

In May 2011, Anderson took over full ownership of both the Mille Lacs Messenger and the Aitkin Independent Age, creating MessAge Media, Inc. In addition to the two newspapers, MessAge Media owns the 20,000-circulation TMC Bargain Hunter and various niche publications.

Anderson recently announced a partnership with Matt McMillan, formerly of the Hutchinson Leader and Litchfield Independent Review, who become publisher of the Aitkin Independent Age. McMillan served as MNA president in 2011.

Since 2006, Anderson has served on the MNA board, chairing the New Media Committee for three years and serving on the Advertising Committee for many years. For the past two years, he has served as chair of the newly-formed Minnesota News Media Institute, MNA’s nonprofit training arm. Anderson also served on the Minnesota Newspaper Foundation board of directors and is a past president of the Minnesota Free Paper Association. He has attended the American Press Institute and the MNA-Blandin Foundation Editors & Publishers Community Leadership Program.

Anderson is active in his community serving on the board of directors of the Mille Lacs Health System and its foundation as well as various civic associations. He and wife Debra, who recently retired from teaching after 33 years, make their home on Mille Lacs Lake. His son Chase, daughter Whitney and grandson Harper live in Minneapolis.

Others elected at the MNA annual meeting include:

· Vice President: Rollin Bergman, Page 1 Publications

· Second Vice President: Pete Mohs, Lake Country Echo, Pequot Lakes

· Third Vice President: Joni Harms, Worthington Daily Globe

· Director for Three-Year Term: Mike Jacobson, Paynesville Press

· Treasurer for One-Year Term: Christerfer Schultz, Herald Journal, Howard Lake

Jason Brown, Long Prairie Leader and Scott Schmeltzer, Albert Lea Tribune will continue to serve as directors. Matt McMillan, Hutchinson Leader will serve as immediate past president.

MAX HEATH NEEDS YOUR INPUT BY THURSDAY NOON

Sorry for the short notice. Max Heath has been granted a meeting Thursday evening while in Des Moines for INA convention with the Senior Lead Plant Manager, Des Moines (and a representive from Western Area in Denver) to discuss the problems with "Mixed ADC" processing for the states of ND, SD, eastern NE, MN, IA, WI 541-549, western MO, and a good bit of central/eastern KS. These problems occured starting in October 2010 when processing for much of these states was shifted into a newly-designated plant, or Network Distribution Center, designated as MXD NDC DES MOINES IA 50092. It seems that more mail was shifted into this new plant than into any other, perhaps helping cause the problem.

While it is often difficult to attribute problems to this specific sortation, this is the last container in a mailing list and serves mail below certain quantities and generally 1,500 or more miles from the SCF plant where the newspaper is normally first handled.

If plant closings occur as proposed, more copies could "leak" into this sortation as direct destinations are lost.

Please email Max maxheath@lcni.com  prior to Thursday noon if you have concerns or complaints that you believe are originating from this "tail-of-the-mail" sortation. Max and NNA want to make the case for more timely attention to this mail.

POST-CONVENTION NEWS

Thank you for making the 2012 MNA Convention a huge success! Attendance was great this year; we’re always excited to see hundreds of members at our January gathering.

We want to thank every member who attended, as well as all of the wonderful speakers who joined us for breakout sessions, our keynoters Rudy Maxa and David Carr, and the many distinguished guests who stopped by.

We’d like to extend special thanks everyone who participated in the Minnesota News Media Institute Silent Auction, Wall of Wine, and Tablet Raffle. Your generosity led to donations totaling $7,505 to MNMI – allowing us to continue our important mission of training, education and outreach.

Check back to the MNA website this and next week to find more information from the convention, including speaker handouts, the convention survey, and more.

CLICK HERE to see who attended the 2012 MNA Convention.

BNC WINNERS

Congratulations to all of the 2010-2011 MNA Better Newspaper Contest Winners!

CLICK HERE to download a duplicate award order form.

CLICK HERE to download a complete list of winners (professional contest). 
CLICK HERE to download a complete list of winners (college contest). 

FRIEND OF MINNESOTA NEWSPAPERS AWARD

Dave Pyle, outgoing Minnesota bureau chief, Associated Press and Bill Albrecht, president, Media Network of Central Ohio, were honored with 2012 Friend of Minnesota Newspapers Awards.

Pyle was recognized for his dedication to Minnesota newspapers: he served for thirty-three with the Minnesota AP, serving twenty-one years as bureau chief and for many years on the MNA Journalism Education Committee.  

Albrecht, who served on the MNA Board of Directors for several years, until he left for Ohio, was honored for his dedication to the Minnesota Newspaper Association and its members. While serving on the MNA Board of Directors, and several MNA committees, Albrecht has been a resource and voice of reason throughout the years, and continues to share his insights as a Minnesota News Media Institute trainer.

HALF CENTURY CLUB

Two new members were inducted to the Half Century Club: Donald Heinzman and Howard Lestrud, both of ECM Publishers, Coon Rapids.

Heinzman, originally from Mankato, started his newspaper career in 1947 covering high school sports for the Mankato Free Press. He has worked for many publications throughout the years, including the Elk River Star News and ECM Publishers, where he is still and editorial writer today.

Howard Lestrud, originally from Albert Lea, started his newspaper career at the Austin Daily Herald, as a student. After spending time in Austin, Albert Lea, and Winona, he settled at the Forest Lake Times and later ECM Publishers. 

Heinzman and Lestrud nominated each other for the honor, and have enjoyed working together at ECM Publishers. 

CLICK HERE for more information. 

SPECIAL AWARDS GIVEN AT BNC BANQUET

· The Herman Roe Editorial Writing Award went to Jack Zaleski of the The Forum of Fargo- Moorhead.

· First place winner of the New Journalist of the Year Award are Jordan Osterman, Waseca County News (all weeklies) and Joseph Lindberg, Faribault Daily News (all dailies).

· The winner of the Lynn Smith Community Service Award is Mankato Free Press. Second place went to St. Cloud Times.

First place General Excellence winners are:

· Weeklies up to 1,500: The Parkers Prairie Independent, LLC

· Weeklies 1,501 to 2,500: Farmington Independent

· Weeklies 2,501 to 5,000: Cottonwood County Citizen, Windom

· Weeklies over 5,000: Southwest Journal, Minneapolis

· Dailies under 10,000: Mesabi Daily News, Virginia

· Dailies over 10,000: St. Cloud Times

Vance Trophy

The Vance Trophy honors the top daily newspaper entered in our BNC contest and is named for the Vance family of Worthington, previous owners of the Daily Globe. The 2010-11 winner of the Vance Trophy is the St. Cloud Times.

Mills Award

The Mills award is for the newspaper judged as the state’s outstanding weekly newspaper entered the contest. The 2010-11 winner of the Mills Award is the Detroit Lakes Tribune.

CLICK HERE for more detail.

GRADUATES & UNDERGRADUATES TO COVER SUPER BOWL MEDIA DAY

Three undergraduate students from Indiana University-Bloomington and four graduate students from the IU National Sports Journalism Center at IUPUI will cover Super Bowl Media Day and Wednesday and Thursday activities.

IU will share some of these stories for any newspaper’s use at www.HSPAInfo.net Click under Colleges & Universities.

Planned stories include:

•       Comparative piece on Jason Pierre-Paul and Michael Strahan – Brian Burnsed

•       Practice squad players  – Brian Burnsed

•       Anatomy of high ankle sprains (Gronkowski) – Brian Burnsed

•       Mathias Kiwanuka Feature – Andrew Crum

•       Patriots Shaun Ellis Feature – Jeremy Smith

•       Weatherford Feature (he's from Terre Haute) – Nathan Brown

WÖRDOS BOOTH CONTEST WINNER

Jean Matua of the Tri-County News in Kimball, is the winner of the Wördos annual grammar-punctuation test at last week’s conventions.

She missed only one question of the ten in the test. Three other persons also missed one, but Jean won the drawing for the undisclosed prize. They are Julie Bergman of The Exponent in East Grand Forks; Noah Skogerboe of the Minnesota History Center; and Georgia Swiry of the Duluth News-Tribune.

Forty-nine persons took the test. There was lots of trouble with the correct spelling of supersede, and the fact that all right are actually two words.

Robert M. Shaw

STASIOWSKI COLUMN

From the cover of the book, two things startle me.

First, the face of Anna Politkovskaya, bordered aptly in black, is challenging, intelligent and, eerily, exactly the face of my sister, Susan Stasiowski George.

Both women died too young, Politkovskaya violently.

Second, the largest letters on the cover spell out her name, which stretches nearly from side to side. Odd: Why wouldn’t the title of the book be in the largest letters?

Because, I’m guessing, the title is so frightening, the publisher thought it would repel potential buyers rather than sell them: “Is Journalism Worth Dying For?”

Continue Reading...

Honor the memory of a friend or colleague

with a MEMORIAL GIFT to the Minnesota News Media Institute.

Click Here to make your donation.

MNA CONGRATULATES THE 2012 PRINT AD DESIGN CONTEST WINNERS!

Thank you to everyone who submitted entries for the 2012 Print Ad Design Contest. Eligible members cast their votes at the convention, and the winners were announced at the Friday luncheon. Checks will be mailed to the winners this week. Special thanks to everyone who participated!

1^st:  Karla Mikkelson – Alexandria Echo Press - $150
2^nd: Staff of the Detroit Lakes Tribune - $100
3^rd: Jean Doran Matua – Kimball Tri County News - $50

Stay tuned – we’ll be posting the winning ads on the MNA website for everyone to admire soon!

MNA DISPLAY AD NETWORK EXPANDS! More Details To Be Announced Soon

The MNA Advertising Committee is excited to announce that all of the MN Sun newspapers (now part of the ECM-Sun Group) and the Lillie Suburban newspapers have officially joined the MNA 2x2/2x4 Display Ad Network! This adds 19 newspapers and 400,000 in circulation into the Metro area and elevates the statewide distribution totals to 276 newspapers with total circulation of 1,413,671 households! At a CPM of $1.70, there is no other advertising vehicle in the state that can compare. MNA will be announcing more details and releasing new marketing collateral in the coming weeks. If you have questions in the meantime, please contact Dan at MNA – 612.278.0223 or Dan@mna.org.

TABLETS: Why The iPad Is A Salesperson’s Best Friend

Recent studies from Forrester and Good Technology show that Apple’s iPad is doing very well in the enterprise, with new activations soaring. One company just deployed 1,300 of the Apple tablets across its sales force, because combined with the right software, it believes there is no better tool a salesperson can carry.

Read the entire article here: http://bit.ly/A87gtP (Courtesy of GigaOM)

MOBILE: 2012 Mobile Ad Spend Revised Up To $2.6 Billion, Google Fueling The Machine

A big endorsement today for mobile advertising from eMarketer: their analysts today said they were revising up their forecasts for U.S. mobile ad spend to $2.61 billion, from their previous estimates of $1.8 billion. Why the rise? Google’s “exceptional” mobile advertising performance in mobile search advertising, and more reliable market data.

Read the entire article here: http://bit.ly/yDuWQ7 (Courtesy of PaidContent.org)

DIGITAL: “The Biggest Publishers Realize They Have To Start Taking Mobile Seriously”

The CEO of Mojiva recently spoke about the complexities of mobile advertising and the future of the medium. Gwozdz is an advertising veteran, having spent over 20 years in the industry. He founded Hot Link Media, one of the first online mobile ad networks, in the 1990s and subsequently became one of the founding members of the team behind DoubleClick, the mobile ad agency acquired by Google for $3 billion in early 2008.

Read the entire article here: http://bit.ly/yNX4aX (Courtesy of TabTimes.com)

STEVEN GLOVER: All Newspapers Need Advertorial, But Don’t Go Duping Your Readers

“Last April, I wrote in this column about a disturbing trend in some newspapers of running paid-for advertisements that look almost indistinguishable – if distinguishable at all – from editorial. It was with great regret that I had to report that The Daily Telegraph was one of the main offenders.

Alas, my piece seems not to have made any difference. Far from it. If anything, the Telegraph has been running more advertisements dressed up as editorial, not fewer.”

Read the entire editorial column here: http://ind.pn/wfY1g3 (courtesy of Independent.co.uk)

MNA Sales Quote of the Week:

“The approach is the most critical part of the entire sales phone call. If you respect others and their time, they will respect you. Ask to be invited into a conversation and watch what happens.” – Steve Kloyda, “The Prospecting Expert” @stevekloyda

Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat

For the next four weeks, we’ll review SWOT analysis and how it can be a useful tool for you to help both you and your clients understand their business. Keep in mind, SWOT cannot and should not replace the initial client needs analysis. A needs analysis helps you and your client understand IF there is a need that you can provide a solution for. Once it has been determined if the need to work together exists, only then can SWOT can help you and your client understand where their business is today and where it could be in the future. It’s at that point that you can start selling them on how you plan to help them get to that next step through effective and consistent advertising.

Before we get started, there are five simple rules of SWOT that must be kept in mind:

1. SWOT is absolutely subjective

2. SWOT is most effective when your clients are realistic about their strengths and weaknesses

3. SWOT should be short and simple. Avoid complexity and over analysis.

4. SWOT should always be specific. Avoid grey areas.

5. SWOT analysis is in relation to your client’s competitors (better than or worse than, something they offer that their competitors don’t.)

Strengths are “internal” factors - things that a business CAN control. I’ll guess that many of newspaper advertising salespeople work with a majority of retail accounts. For the purpose of this summary, let’s assume that we’re sitting down with one of our retail clients with the goal of identifying their current strengths. You simply want to make a list – be realistic and specific. From a retail perspective, here is a snapshot of items you and your client (“we”) may come up with:

- We sell an innovative product

- We offer a high quality product

- We have multiple retail locations

- We have a highly skilled and long tenured staff

- We have excellent name/brand recognition within the market

- We are currently in a solid financial position / carry little debt

- We own our buildings / no rent expenses

- We have very few competitors in our market

This list would be a terrific start to the SWOT analysis. It’s generated from an internal perspective, but also considers the point of view of your client’s customers and people/businesses within their market. Most importantly, the strengths listed are in relation to the competition; for example, if all of the competitors in the market provide high quality products, then a high quality product is not a strength in your client’s business, it's a necessity!

Next week in The Sales Cycle, we’ll look a look at Weaknesses that your client’s businesses may have. Like strengths, weaknesses are “internal” factors that can be controlled – and with a strategic plan put into place can often be transformed into future strengths.

Sincerely,
Dan

If there are specific topics you’d like to see discussed in a future issue of The Sales Cycle, please let me know! dan@mna.org or 612.278.0223

The Minnesota News Media Institute of the Minnesota Newspaper Association provides regular training opportunities for its members. Visit this section of the Bulletin each week to find information on new programs, in-person training sessions and webinars. Contact Program Director Sarah Bauer with any questions, comments or programming suggestions: sarah@mna.org or 612-278-0250.

Read more about the Minnesota News Media Institute and find a full listing of training opportunities here: http://www.mna.org/mna-resources/MNMI.html

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UPCOMING INLAND WEBINARS

Webinars cost only $75 for MNA members. To download a brochure of upcoming Webinars, click here. To register for a Webinar, click here.

View a full list of upcoming Inland Press webinars here: http://inlandpress.org/training/webinars/

POYNTER'S NEWS UNIVERSITY

The Poynter Institute's News University serves more than 130,000 users through courses, group seminars, and Webinars, covering subjects from multimedia techniques, to writing, to reporting, and beyond.

Some training programs of note:

· Writing Better Headlines and SEO Essentials (February 2012)

· Facebook for Reporting and Storytelling (Feb. 17)

· Write Your Heart Out: The Craft of the Personal Essay (2012)

CLICK HERE for a complete list of upcoming training opportunities.