Great webinars: Some of the fabulous benefits of BCYCNA membership

A popular benefit of membership in the  BC & Yukon Community Newspapers Association is the continual access to webinars. BCYCNA members can benefit from a substantial discount on webinars at BrainCast.biz, led by industry software guru Kevin Slimp.

To access these discounts, enter the association discount code, PRASSOC, when registering online at http://www.braincast.biz/association.html. With this code you will receive a 20-percent discount off the $89 price. Each webinar lasts 60 minutes and includes time for participants to ask questions of Kevin afterwards.

See the class descriptions below or for more information, visit BrainCast.BIZ.

BCYCNA members also have access to webinars via the CCNA and the OCNA. Coming up in September are sessions on interview techniques, cold calling, and creative copywriting. The fees range from $25 to $60 (use one speakerphone and one computer and train as many people as you like). For more information and to register, visit http://www.ocna.org/webinars.

Upcoming topics include:
Advanced InDesign Tips & Tricks - Thursday, October 1, 3 p.m. (EST) / 2 Central / 12 Pacific

Instructor: Kevin Slimp
The problem with being a newspaper designer is that there’s not a lot of time to learn time saving tools in our favorite applications. Join Kevin as he teaches experienced and newer users how to speed up your work and do things you didn’t know you could do in InDesign.

To register, click on the following link or visit the url listed above:

https://www.telspan.com/Registration/AnonymousLandingPage.aspx?EventNo=3911

Finding Problems in PDF Files - Friday, October 2, 11 a.m. (EST) / 10 Central / 9 Pacific

Instructor: Kevin Slimp
Learn to find problems in PDF Files before they cause problems on your newspaper pages. Kevin is the guru of all things PDF. Don’t miss this fast-paced class. Good for users of Acrobat versions 5 through 9 Pro.

To register, click on the following link or visit the url listed above:

https://www.telspan.com/Registration/AnonymousLandingPage.aspx?EventNo=3913

Fixing Problems in PDF Files - Thursday, October 8, 3 p.m. (EST) / 2 Central / 12 Pacific

Instructor: Kevin Slimp
On October 2, we learn to find problems in PDFs we receive from others.  Join Kevin Slimp, the guy who started this whole PDF printing craze, on October 8 as he demonstrates how to fix most common PDF problems.

To register, click on the following link or visit the url listed above:

https://www.telspan.com/Registration/AnonymousLandingPage.aspx?EventNo=3915

Photoshop: Improving your color & gray images - Friday, October 23, 11 a.m. (EST) / 10 Central / 9 Pacific

Instructor: Kevin Slimp
Learn to set your color settings for consistent results. Learn how to use color adjustment tools to get better reproduction on newspapers. Kevin will also teach a new method for saving grayscale images to achieve better results, without burning out the whites

To register, click on the following link or visit the url listed above:

https://www.telspan.com/Registration/AnonymousLandingPage.aspx?EventNo=3917

Showing support for Canadian newspapers!

Over the past few months several debt-ridden newspapers in the U.S have made headline, as Canadian newspapers continue to prosper. The Canadian Community Newspapers Association in partnership with the Canadian Newspaper Association will be providing members with a pro-newspaper ad campaign to acknowledge the many of the country’s papers who consistently deliver to significant audiences across the country,

Visit http://www.cna-acj.ca/newspapercampaign/ for more info.

Small Towns, Big Success

The Associated Press recently came out with a thought provoking and commonsensical article on the current status of newspapers – focusing how smaller community publications are more stable than their larger counterparts.

How is this possible?

First, it begins with the lack of additional media in small- and medium-sized towns – generally community newspapers are the only source of media. Therefore, they have been sheltered from the cataclysmic circumstances causing many big city dailies to shrink in size and scope as their print circulations and advertising sales decline.

With meager competition, the print editions and Web sites of smaller newspapers become the go-to source for local coverage. Contrastingly, newspapers in larger cities report more national and local news, while facing greater competitors, including online, television and radio mediums. These extra outlets are reporting much of the news well before the printed newspapers reach homes and newsstands. Large newspapers’ Web sites also provide the news for free a day ahead of print editions.

In addition, newspapers in smaller markets are not loosing large amounts of revenue to online classified advertising alternatives. Community Classifieds remain quite successful in reaching a targeted audience, as the local newspapers are quintessential to their surrounding neighbourhoods.

When compared to their larger counterparts, the smaller newspapers have been defying the seemingly apparent trend of financial dilemmas, based upon a new study of 125 various sized U.S. publications by the trade group, Inland Press Association.

The study found among daily newspapers, the classified ad revenue with circulations of less than 15,000 actually rose by an average of 23 percent in the five years ending in 2008. The ad revenue for newspapers with less than 15,000 in circulation rose by an average of 2.5 percent over the same peroid. Meanwhile, ad revenue dropped 25 percent at daily newspapers with circulations greater than 80,000, according to Inland Press.

For the full article, click HERE.

News from the Ministry of Finance

The Ministry of Finance has rewritten Bulletin SST 029, Printers and Publishers, providing specific tax information to help us as publishers understand how the provincial sales tax (PST), applies to your business. It uses plain language, while incorporating information about the production machinery and equipment exemption.

The publication is available for viewing at http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/documents_library/bulletins/SST_029.pdf or requests can be made for a paper copy, by e-mailing SBRPublications@gov.bc.ca.

To read more concerning the Ministry of Finance and tax exemption for your community newspaper click the following link, http://www.gov.bc.ca/fin/.

Altering the ad placement process

Are magazines revolutionizing the productivity of advertising in the country? AdDirect, a new national preflight and delivery portal from Magazine Canada was launched on Tuesday, helping simplify ad placements for the advertiser and publishers alike.

Speeding up the creation process, AdDirect is designed to reduce the workload of production departments by eradicating time consuming back-and-forth trouble-shooting between advertiser and publishers.

In a single upload AdDirect allows advertisers to place ads with multiple publishers all while automatically validating ad files against print specifications and instantly placing them with matching titles and issues. Upon delivery, senders receive an electronic receipt giving receiver confirmation.

Will community newspapers be next to jump on this new wave of ad placement? Currently, three of the top publishing companies in Canada, Rogers Publishing, St. Joseph Media and Transcontinental Media, have adopted the AdDirect system to their production.

To find out more about AdDirect, click HERE.