Bringing it back to the community

As technology moves forward, so does our industry – many newspapers have changed formatting a bit by adding an online edition, thus enabling readers, wherever they have internet access, to view their message. The New York Times has warmly embraced this change, while strengthening their online readership, with Sarah Kramer and her weekly column, “One in 8 Million.”

Kramer’s column extends beyond the mass spread of The New York Times and brings it back to what really matters – the community. As journalists wanting to make local connections, it does not matter whether the population of your town is 8-million, like New York City, or 650, like Greenwood, BC. The message of her slice of life column is the same: everyone, yes everyone, has a story to tell.

Kramer was hired at The New York Times as a multimedia and audio producer. Wanting to improve the audio content on the web, she and fellow Times multimedia producer, Alexis Mainland, developed a web-only multimedia segment combining audio and photography. “One in 8 Million” tells human-interest stories by subjectively spotlighting New York City characters. Such stories reveal the everyday person, sharing personal insight that would otherwise go unnoticed in radio and film.

“One in 8 Million” is attractively produced with captivating black and white images and first-person narrative. Check out this week’s story, “May Wong Lee: The Adoptive Mother,” a look into the life of a New York City mother who adopts an Ethiopian girl, believing she was three, but who was in fact a malnourished 6-year-old. Other features introduce us to a subway busker, a singing waitress, and an urban taxidermist, to name a few.

As community newspapers, we can learn a lot from someone who manages to make a place as expansive as New York City into an intimate community of fascinating residents. Check out Kramer’s column here: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html.

2009 Ma Murray Awards – Video Highlights Now Online!

It may seem like a distant memory already, but the 2009 Ma Murray Awards, which took place in April, were recorded and preserved for the vaults. Want to watch an acceptance speech? See the finalists and their work on screen? Check out the Awards page on the BCYCNA website and re-live this year’s awesome event.

Click on the link below to relive the evening!
http://www.bccommunitynews.com/files/awards.html

Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit honouring journalism excellence promoting adult literacy

Here is a great opportunity for our talented BCYCNA journalists to help raise awareness of the adult literacy issue in Canada.  Journalists can submit their work in the Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit 2009. More information is now available at http://www.abc-canada.org/en/media/journalism_award.

The Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit was developed by ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation in 1993, in honour of the late broadcaster and writer Peter Gzowski, to acknowledge the great contribution made by a Canadian journalist, in any media, in raising awareness of the adult literacy issue in this country.

The competition is open to all professional journalists working and residing in Canada. Journalists may submit their own work, or nominate the work of a fellow journalist. Entries may be of either a local or national interest, and may be based on reporting analysis, commentary, special section, feature or series.  Entries will be accepted from the following categories: newspaper (daily, community, regional or national), magazine, television news, television feature (news magazine/talk show), radio interview and Internet. Entries for the 2009 competition must have been published, broadcast or posted online between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008.

Deadline for submissions is Friday, June 26, 2009.

The winner will be honoured at a special award presentation in Toronto on Wednesday, October 7, 2009. A $1,000 donation will be made, in the winning journalist’s name, to a literacy organization in their community.

For application forms, and reference to past winners, please go to: http://www.abc-canada.org/en/media/journalism_award.

For quick reference to the application form, click on the 2009 Peter Gzowski Entry Form.
For quick reference to more information on the Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit 2009, click on Peter Gzowski Literacy package.

The power of first impressions

By John Foust
Raleigh, NC

English literary and social critic William Hazlitt once wrote, “First impressions are often the truest.”

In the world of selling, a first impression can make the difference between making a sale and losing a prospect forever. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples:

Example 1: Karla is a real estate developer who has been on the receiving end of hundreds of advertising presentations. “I thought I’d seen it all,” she said, “until this one sales person walked into my office with a large, to-go coffee cup, and slurped it during the appointment.

“That didn’t surprise me too much,” she admitted, “because I’ve seen that kind of sloppy behavior before. The thing that put him in the Sales Person’s Hall of Shame was when he turned around and poured what was left of the coffee on a potted plant beside the conference table. He laughed and said, ‘Coffee is good for a plant, don’t you know?’

Karla was angry that someone could be so ill-mannered. “No, I didn’t know that coffee is good for a plant. And no, I never ran advertising in his paper. If he was that careless when he was supposedly trying to make a good impression, how would he act after making a sale? His behavior created a negative image for his employer.

“Of course, this is an extreme example,” Karla explained, “but I’ve told my employees this story to illustrate that we should be particularly mindful of our manners when we’re with our customers. There’s nothing complicated about it. When clients come to our office, we should be gracious hosts. And when we go to their offices, we should be gracious guests.”

Example 2: My wife and I met with the representative of a roofing company to talk about replacing our roof. On the day of our first appointment, our assigned sales person walked in, took off his shoes, and said, “Since a lot of my work is outside, there may be some dirt on my shoes. I don’t want to track dirt on your clean floors.” Suellen and I instinctively glanced down, noticed that he was wearing clean socks (without holes!), and welcomed him into our home.

Obviously, the roof sales person had a different approach from Karla’s coffee slob. By showing genuine respect for our home, he created a positive first impression for himself and his company. That wasn’t the only reason Suellen and I chose them to do the work, but it did make a difference in our comparisons. We felt confident that his roof installers would show similar respect for our house and yard, and pay close attention to detail.

It has been said that first impressions are lasting impressions. In the case of the roof company, our first impression will last for 30-plus years – the length of time the roof is guaranteed to last.

In the case of the coffee-in-the-plant guy, the first impression resulted in a determination to never advertise in his paper.

(c) Copyright 2009 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

E-mail John Foust for information about his training videos for ad departments: jfoust@mindspring.com

Webinar: Writing for the Web - A deadline every second

On June 4^th BCYCNA members will have a great opportunity to get involved in a pertinent webinar concerning the evolving trends in the newspaper industry. Now it’s speed, speed, speed. Forget hours, you’re updating by the minute when news breaks. In this webinar we will cover:

- What users expect from your Web site
- How to re-define and own breaking news
- How to identify and promote breaking news coverage so users come back for more
- How to deliver the news in the form users want

We’ll also develop strategies and tips to handle deadline reporting so you’re in command no matter what happens.

Michael Schwartz is president of Business Power, an Atlanta-based communications coaching firm. He coaches clients to excellence in the areas of writing skills, PowerPoint presentations and Web seminars.

His goal is to assure his clients stand out from their peers and competitors when they communicate, sell, market or train. He burnishes their personal brand through communication skills that are clear, impactful, memorable and powerful.

Cost: $60. (Use one speakerphone & one computer and you can train as many people as you like)

Cancellations are permitted up to 24 hours prior to the start of the Webinar session. All other registrants will be billed for the session. Please forward cancellations to k.shardlow@ocna.org

Title:  Writing for the Web - A deadline every second
Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited
Now is the time to act! As a BCYCNA member you can stay up to date on current trends and reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/336332160.

2009 BCYCNA/BC Press Council Scholarship Finalists Announced

The BCYCNA is once again about to award some of the largest and most accessible scholarship bursaries in British Columbia and Yukon.

Graduating high school students from all over BC and Yukon were asked to submit a 500-word essay to their community newspaper by April 24, 2009, where one local finalist would be chosen. Those finalists’ essays were then forwarded to the BCYCNA where, with the help of BC Press Council judges, the top three scholarship winners are now being selected.

Awards of $5,000, $3,500 and $1,500 will be awarded to the three students who best answer the question, “How can community newspapers better serve and engage their young readers?”

This is the ninth year in a row the two organizations have come together to bring much-needed funds to students seeking post-secondary education, and the initiative is only growing in popularity as more young people learn about it.

The three scholarships will be awarded to the winners at their graduating ceremony by a representative of their local community newspaper.  

Click on the link to see the list of High School Scholarship Finalists.

The Campaign is Over

Yes, the 2009 BC election campaign is over, but we are referring to the BCYCNA initiative to sell the Community Classifieds.

The end of April meant the end of this campaign, so we thank all BCYCNA members and their classifieds sales team for all their hard work, enthusiasm and support. We would like to congratulate Pat Shearer of The Yukon News, who was our March winner of $500, as well as Kristy O’Connor from BC Classifieds (Black Press), who won the overall prize of $1,000. Kristy successfully booked 170 ads over the course of this campaign! Way to go everyone for all the extra effort.

The “buy-three-ads-and-get-the-fourth-one-free” promotion generated great interest as the overall Community Classifieds ad placement increased. The result was so favourable, in fact, that the BCYCNA Board has extended this fourth-free trial until further notice.

So keep on selling!

BCYCNA now on twitter!

The Community Classifieds has entered into the micro-blogging world of twitter giving the latest information on classified advertising. It is just another way to keep connected with the BCYCNA Community Classifieds  - now BCYCNA members can tweet and follow CommunityAds and inform their followers of the many benefits of community classifieds.

Be sure to follow us, http://twitter.com/CommunityAds. Tweet ya later!

The evolving newspaper industry

In the words of Vancouver Sun managing editor, Kirk LaPointe, “The newspaper business isn’t dying, it’s evolving.”

Earlier this month, LaPointe commented, “[The local newspaper] is becoming the leader in local content online, developing the reputation for quickly breaking news, with some significant differences in form and process.”

With the expanding dynamics of the newspaper industry, the online medium is not replacing the print edition; rather it strengthens it. Now the audience can be informed immediately with engaging updates, interactive photos, helpful links, and then after many added details, the final edition goes to print as the permanent resource.

“Journalism is everything and everyone, available anytime and almost anywhere. It is elastic, agile and adaptable as never before. It is on a new journey and mission, one far more inclusive and responsive, and democracy should celebrate this,” says LaPointe.

For the full article click HERE.

BCYCNA welcomes newest member!

The BCYCNA is pleased to welcome the Alberni Valley News as our newest member. The News, a Black Press paper, published its first edition in August 2006, and today brings BCYCNA membership to a record 115 papers!

The community served by the News is a vibrant and growing area situated in central Vancouver Island, at the tip of Alberni Inlet. The Alberni Valley News is delivered once a week on Fridays to 12,000 homes and businesses from Sproat Lake to Cameron Heights, Cherry Creek and Beaver Creek, employing more than 60 youth and adult carriers and drivers.

The BCYCNA would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest member!