tcnatoday april 2014

V I S I T U S A T W W W . T C N A T O D A Y . C O M

Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 223-5708 (888)450-8329 fax 1

TCNATodayTCNA offers connections—connections to information, trends, training and direct revenue opportunities.

Effective Selling Requires Ready To Roll Solutions Jo-Ann Johnson of Metro Creative Graphics, Inc. shows that using some of their products, specifically MiAd, will help your sales staff sell more and be more professional while doing it.

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Leading By “Littles” John Foust uses an experience with baseball icon Yogi Berra to show that managers can lead by little things.

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Conference ScheduleHurry and register for this game-changing Summit. Bring your entire staff and learn, share and enjoy.

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Graphics Series Ellen Hanrahan showcases the venerable 2x2. We all sell them, Ellen shows us how to make them more useful and appealing.

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Work PositivelyDr. Joey Faucette shows us how March Madness can teach us to work positive as a sales team..

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The “Close” Is Not The Final ElementBob Berting , Mr. Community Paper instructs us how the “close” is not necessarily the most important part of the sale.

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It’s the 50th anniversary of the Texas Community Newspaper Association, and we’re celebrating this golden oc-casion by relaunching and rejuvenat-ing our organization with a party on the Riverwalk.

If you’ve attended this event in the past couple of years, we can promise we’ve breathed new life into our annual con-vention. We’ll have an awards banquet on Saturday night, but other than that, almost everything has changed.

For starters, there won’t be any dark,

Celebrate 50 Years inSan Antonio

cold rooms with sleepy speakers. No, this is a Summit designed for those of us who have battled through the chal-lenging times and are ready to get re-invigorated about what we do.

We’ll start the Summit with a Friday evening reception by the pool. We’ll buy you a drink or two and keep the cash bar open. After that, folks are free to have dinner on their own.

Saturday, we’ll have exhibitors and a series of talks that are nothing like what you’ve seen before. Among them

SERVING THE COMMUNITY MEDIA OF TEXAS APRIL 2014

continued on page 2

are:

1. Why community newspapers and local media survived the storm. It’s time to start growing again.

2. The best way to make money at your office, and why your presenta-tion really matters (we promise you’ll leave with a new approach to making money).

3. The Art of Relevancy: If you build it, they still come – no matter if it’s print or digital.



4. A roundtable devoted to getting rid of the myths about our business.

5. A “Worst Ideas Session,” where we have a little fun with the areas we’ve

continued from page 1 failed and the introduction of some ideas that won’t fail.

This is short notice, but if you’ve ever attended a TCNA convention and you’re worried you won’t get anything

from it, we’ll make you a money-back guarantee. You’ll have a blast.

The cost is so cheap, we’re not sure you can afford to miss it.

May 2-3, 2014AGENDA

Friday, May 23:30-5:00 p.m. Board Meeting6:00-7:30 p.m. Reception by the Pool, hosted by CVC Cash Bar6:30-7:30 p.m. Exhibit Set Up7:30 until Dinner on your own

Saturday, May 37:00-8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast7:30-9:00 a.m. Exhibits Open9:00-10:00 a.m. An Open Conversation about Newspapers and our Products What we do well Why we’re here Why we’re still here What makes us so successful10:00-10:30 a.m. Exhibits/Break10:30-11:30 a.m. Make us some money, Dennis – A conversation on revenue drivers Introduction by selected vendors/partnersNoon–1:30 p.m. Lunch/Exhibits1:30-2:30 p.m. The Art of Relevancy – A conversation on our content Introduction by selected vendors/partners2:30-3:00 p.m. Exhibits/Break 3:00-3:45 p.m. Publisher’s Roundtable3:45-5:00 p.m. Worst Ideas Session6:30-8:00 p.m. Dinner/Banquet



Meet OurDirector

We’re On The Grow

The TCNA Board of Directors is happy to announce the appoint-ment of Douglas Fry as our new Executive Director. He will man-age the day-to-day operations of the association as well as handling the TexCAP program.

If you have any questions regarding just about anything you can ask Mr. Fry. Go ahead, give him a call at 931.223.5708.

Douglas has been in the free community paper business since the early 1980s. He began as a sales rep at a 40,000 weekly shopper in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was quickly promoted through the organization and became the publisher in 1983. At the same time he became involved in SAPA (Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association) and was elected Treasurer.

In 1986 he moved with his young family to Fayetteville, Tennessee to become Assistant to the Publisher of the Ex-change. He oversaw the transition from traditional photo-typesetting to computer based design and layout. His roles at the company included designing remote access com-puter systems for payroll, billing, and logistics; pre-press supervisor of their web printing facility; and lead software designer of a classified ad system that is still in use by many papers across the country. In 2000 he changed jobs and began working on a start up magazine mailed to over 1 million homes in Tennessee.

In 2002 he accepted the position as Executive Director of SAPA (Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association) and absolutely loves working with community media. Douglas is considered to be an authority on all things digi-tal in the industry and brings his design capabilities, in-depth knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Quark XPress to the members of TCNA.

Dear TCNA and TexCAP Members,

Welcome to a new, exciting organization that wants you to become an active part of it!

This, our Golden Anniversary, is a special year for many reasons. We are proud of the 50 years we have dedicated to supporting this industry in Texas.

Thanks to a top-notch group of board members over the years, TCNA has grown and changed and, now we offer even more to each member. I am honored to have served on the board, and am looking forward to my second year as TCNA’s president.

Not only is the board of directors made up of some of the sharpest and most dedicated media reps in Texas, they also take time from their very busy schedules to make decisions that will help each and every member.

The board is thrilled that our new Executive Director Doug-las Fry is not only on-board, but busy preparing for our upcoming conference in San Antonio. This guy is hands-on! He created this wonderful and informative newsletter and is working hard to make the conference one you will not only want to attend, but also take valuable information from and really use with your publications.

We all want to make money for our publications, so every member of TCNA will want to also be a part of TexCAP, a program that brings in revenue to your paper, your sales staff and TCNA.

Ask Douglas how you can join in this win-win program, and be sure to attend the informative talk about TexCAP at our conference on May 3.

On behalf of the board of directors, welcome Douglas, and welcome everyone to the 2013 conference in San Antonio on the River Walk!

Kathleen HoltonTCNA President



by John Foust

During one spring training season, the New York Yankees’ Nick Swish-er asked baseball icon Yogi Berra for some hitting advice. Yogi told him to take a step toward the plate and a step toward the pitcher. “You’re letting the

Leading By Littles

pitch break down on you too much. That’s why these guys are getting you out.”

“That’s it?” asked Swisher.

“That’s it,” Yogi said.

In his next time at bat – and against the same pitcher – Swisher took Yo-

Ready To Roll Solutions

EFFECTIVE SELLING REQUIRES READY-TO-ROLL SOLUTIONS

There was a time — and it wasn’t so very long ago — when newspaper ad-vertising representatives had to be ex-perts in one thing and one thing only — selling print ads in print publica-tions. Today, while many of the strat-egies remain the same — upselling, standing apart from the competition, overcoming objections, and closing the deal, to name a few — today’s ad reps sell solutions.

Here is a sampling of the 21st century resources and strategies that all news-paper ad reps should have in their pockets or, better yet, on their laptops or tablets:

SPEC ADS STILL RULEIn fact, they are more important than ever. Having spec ads — including Web ad presentations — on every sales call is key to making bigger sales and closing them in less time. Having the ability to put together print and on-line spec ad presentations quickly and easily, then sharing them with the cus-tomer during the sales call, can make all the difference.

Among the most powerful tools in a sales rep’s arsenal is Metro’s MiAD (now also available for mobile). Over the last three years, MiAD, Metro’s content-driven online application that enables users to create spec ads and finished ads anywhere they have access to a Web browser and Internet connection, has revolutionized the newspaper’s spec ad process and boosted its ability to engage advertisers and close deals.

For Eric Bauer, Publisher of the Or-ange (Texas) Leader, “Using MiAD spec ads helps us appeal to customers’ other senses, because we’re no longer selling an invisible product,” he ex-plains. “The customer has a chance to visualize not just the ad, but the out-come of that ad and start participating in its design. Once the customer is in-volved, closing the deal becomes just a matter of making whatever changes he or she requests.”

Show ready-to-roll solutions. Among the quickest routes to getting a lock on the competition and generating increased revenue is through the sale of specialty pages that are designed to highlight a specific timely topic or theme that will optimally showcase an advertiser’s ad among a group of com-plementary advertisers. For example, Metro offers a variety of themed, mul-

tiple-advertiser ad layouts and cam-paigns featuring proven and complete concepts that are ready to present and sell. By presenting advertisers with a variety of ads in optimal sizes, the chances of engaging advertisers and closing sales multiply exponentially. You can present ads by simply print-ing the files or — even better — add the advertiser’s logos and information in advance to create customized pre-sentations.

The bottom line? If you’re selling so-lutions, you have to be ready to show customers what you’ve got. And that means arriving at sales calls with ac-tual layouts that offer a variety of me-dia, ad positions, and sizes, and meet a variety of needs.

This article was written by Jo-Ann John-son of Metro Creative Graphics, Inc.

continued on page5



gi’s advice and hit a stand-up double. When he returned to the dugout, Yogi praised him and said, “You see? All you have to do is make contact with the baseball. Move up against a break-ing-ball pitcher.”

Yogi had recognized the problem im-mediately. While Swisher could hit the fastball, it was the breaking pitch that bothered him. By moving up in the batter’s box, he could cut the pitch’s distance.

Today’s sales managers would be wise to follow Yogi’s example of leading by littles. That is, helping people grow

one manageable step at a time. Here are some points to keep in mind:

1. Keep it simple. With 10 World Se-ries championship rings and a plaque in baseball’s Hall of Fame, Yogi Berra is a walking encyclopedia of baseball. But it’s not his style to clutter a ball-player’s mind with unnecessary infor-mation. One simple suggestion – one small thing that Swisher could do on his next at bat – was all that Yogi need-ed to mention.

Many managers make the mistake of overloading their staffs with too many instructions at one time. Do it this way,

they say. And be sure to do that. And don’t forget this other thing. And have it all done by tomorrow.

By seeing immediate results, Swisher boosted his confidence. Yogi knew that asking him to do everything at once would not produce a successful experience.

2. Pay attention. When Swisher asked for help, Yogi didn’t have to do an exhaustive analysis of his batting av-erage, on-base percentages or his life-time record against that particular pitcher. As a student of the game, Yogi had been watching each player care-fully throughout spring training – so he could be ready with help at a mo-ment’s notice.

Sales managers should do the same. By getting to know their people, by studying them from the corner of the dugout, they will be in a better posi-tion to offer do-able suggestions.

3. Celebrate success. The best sales managers recognize the accomplish-ments of their individual team mem-bers. While it’s not necessary to throw a party after a big sale (in reality, that strategy could backfire by discourag-ing those sales people who have not had a big sale lately), it is important to help successful sales people feel good about their successes. Words of praise can go a long way toward helping a manager accomplish the first order of business: building people.

Leadership is not a matter of changing everything at once. It’s simply chang-ing one thing at a time – knowing that little changes add up to something bigger.

(c) Copyright 2014 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising pro-fessionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick re-sults from in-house training. Email for infor-mation: [email protected]

by Bob Berting, Mr. Community Paper

Newspaper sales managers and train-ers sometimes spend too much time teaching salespeople how to close sales. In fact, the close may not be the most important part of the sale. Furthermore, traditional closing tech-niques could have an adverse effect in selling situations.

EXTENSIVE STUDIES Many experts have studied thousands of salespeople and have realized that in many cases, traditional closing techniques do not always work. Many times, sales have gone down as the frequency and intensity of closing at-tempts went up. In many cases, it was difficult to gain insight by asking suc-cessful salespeople what they do, be-cause they really didn’t know. What they say and what they do are usually different. The best way to determine what makes them successful is to ob-serve their behavior in the field while they actually make sales calls.

THE PRESENTATION The polished, hard sell presentation may per-suade the prospect to purchase an ad on the spot. But research shows that the presentation had only a tem-porary effect that is largely gone after the presentation. Many times the hard sell had a closing effect that offended the prospect. When the follow up op-portunity comes, the prospect doesn’t want another dose of pressure and the opportunity to make more subsequent calls may be lost.

PERCEIVED VALUE In most cases, perceived value has to be great to justify a major ad campaign and a major expenditure. Therefore it is unlikely that a salesperson can complete the sale in the first or even second contact. Another characteristic of the major ad campaign is that there are sophisticated and savvy buyers

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The “Close” Is Not The Final Element



Ellen Hanrahan ©2014

I welcome your input and suggestions. A former art teacher, I entered the free paper publishing business in the early 80s. I write for IFPA, Community Papers of Michigan, and am still learning. E-mail: [email protected]

Two by Two’sI MAY BE IN A RUT! LAST MONTH I SHOWCASED A COUPLE OF 2x2 ADS AND THIS MONTH THEY HAVE MULTIPLIED! THE FACT IS, THESE ADS CAN DEMONSTRATE THE USE OF ORNAMENTAL TYPEFACES TO ADD A LITTLE IMPACT AND INTEREST, SO HERE ARE SOME MORE IDEAS FOR…

My apologies to Noah and his ark of animals boarding two by two. I am referring to our 2-column by 2-inch ad format. These smaller ads give me the chance to use some of the “dingbat” or “ornamental” typefaces at my disposal— because I can add a decora-tive element without having to dismantle a larger piece of art. Also, they are easy to do—usually not a lot of copy goes into these ads, but that can vary. I have also included some simple pieces of art, depending on the request of the customer, or to add a little more emphasis to the information.

DingbatsI can’t help but think of Edith Bunker when I use the term dingbat (thanks to Archie Bunker on “All in the Family”), but a dingbat is a good thing. It is a typographical device, other than a letter or numeral. I am not sure how or when it came into use, but when I started in graphic design… a long time ago, there were dingbat fonts. (Wow, I just real-ized that I referenced Noah and Archie Bunker in the same article!) Sample #1 was a straight-forward political thank you. To keep a “stars and stripes” or patriotic theme, I chose a dingbat font called Gubbins Borders by Ampersand Foundry. I’ve included a few samples below:

qwertyuiopasd ghjklzxcvbnmThe dingbat I used m— was transformed in InDesign using Create Outlines under the type menu. It could also be done in Adobe illustrator or QuarkXPress by using the text-to-box feature (which is how I handled this technique when I was using the XPress program). This allowed me to color the artwork and to also remove the star and use it for emphasis in another area of the ad. Sample #2 wanted to add a flower, so I chose a simple line drawing of a rose, which I felt was more informal, yet personal. I created an irregular shape following the contour of the flower, filled it with a basic feather and placed it behind the flower to soften the solid graphic contrast between the text and artwork. Sample #3 is a “Card of Thanks” that we often ran. Type size is kept the same size throughout, but to add a little impact or attention it was “dressed up” with another selection from Gubbins Borders (see above). This time the dingbat was repeated to form the area across the top:

u uuuuuuuuuuuuu It was then reversed to add a more reverential feel to the ad. You can also create entire borders using these typographic elements, but the 2x2 inch size is a little small to make the best use of a border to go around the entire ad. Using these dingbats at too small a point size would result in a less clear and poorly defined pattern, so keep them on the large size. Point size in the ad is 20 points and at 24 points in the various above samples (the border sample above is 22 points, all the other “borders” are 24 points). Sample #4 is a typical “help wanted” for a teacher’s aide. This time I chose to make it a little more visual. You can see that there is not a lot of copy, so to make the ad stand out from the rest, I added educational graphics, highlighted them by placing in a white circle which repeats the area and shape that contains the name of the school. Text is still prominent so the artwork does not overpower it. Here are some additional dingbats strung together to create “borders”…

qqqqqqqqqqqqqqmmmmmmmmmmmmmmLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Authorized and paid for by John Q. Public

THANK YOU!To the Town of Herman Voters for all your support in the past years.

John Q. Public

Authorized and paid for by Karla Braeden

Town of Rubicon VotersThank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to vote on April 3, 2001. I truly appreciate your support.

Sincerely, Karla Braeden

Call Neosho School 888-555-4321

NEOSHO SCHOOL

Teacher’s Aide Grades 6–8 Part-time mornings

We would like to thank everyone for the prayers, support, help, visits, cards, and gifts that were given to us throughout Joseph’s recovery.

A special thank you to Pastor Fortain, Little Switzerland Ski Patrol, the ambulance services, Hartford Memorial Hospital Emergency Room, and Joseph’s friends.

Karl, Susan, Hannah, and Joseph Hillermann

Most times, a Political Thank You will maintain the patriotic theme—the customer request was to add a flower.

❶

❷

❸

❹

uuuuuuuuuuuu

Whether you use them as a group, or take them apart, take a closer look at dingbats, or simple line art—especially when space is limited. Searching for an item to add a little impact may be sitting in your fonts folder. There are also a lot of these fonts available for free (or minimal cost) online— especially seasonal. And with the Open Type fonts, there may be some of these little gems hiding within some of the fonts you already have…



Work Positive3 POSITIVE REASONS TEAMS

WIN AT WORKby Dr. Joey Faucette

Watching NCAA March Madness Tournament college basketball games, I’ve learned again the supremacy of team versus a star-player-plus-four approach. Sure the “one and done” star freshman who’s merely passing through for a year on his way to the NBA might be thrilling to watch, but several such “it’s-all-about-me” squads lost to double-digit seeded teams.

How did the teams win? And what can we learn from them so we win at work?

Here are 3 Positive Reasons Teams Win at Work:

TEAMS FOCUS ON WINNINGStar-dominated squads focus on stats. How many points did their main man score? How many rebounds did he get? Or blocks? Did he make that elu-sive triple double?

Teams focus on one thing: winning the game. They keep the main thing the main thing. You continue to play in the tournament when you win.

What about your work team? Do you focus on individual stats like your personal sales goal to the exclusion of the team? Or, do you bring an owner mentality to the team, seeing yourself as contributing to the continuing prof-itability of the company?

Work Positive teams focus on win-ning. They keep playing.

TEAMS FOCUS ON OTHERS.Teams focus on one outcome—win-ning. They know they win by focusing on others.

Star-played-plus-four squads focus on the Chosen One. The one who is on the cover of the press guide, by himself. “Give me the ball and let me shoot” is his mantra. Let him have an off night, which happens to all of us, and they stink up the arena.

Teams focus on other players. Rather than keeping the ball excessively, they find ways to make one more pass for a higher percentage shot by a teammate. Scoring is distributed evenly among five or more players. All contribute by playing their role.

How about your work team? Is “it” all about one person doing everything? Or, do projects dictate that each of you make your unique contribution? That the pieces are passed around to the person best equipped to succeed until its finished?

Work Positive teams focus on others on the team who have a greater shot at success with the task.

TEAMS FOCUS ON OPPORTUNITIES.

Teams focus on one outcome—win-ning—by focusing on others. They also focus on opportunities.

If the star player misses shots, the other players stand around, expecting him to make it. Conversely, teams are active without the ball and put back offensive rebounds at a higher rate. They move toward opportunities.

At work, who stands around waiting for others to do the work? Teams that focus on winning and others also focus on opportunities. Their motion offense constantly learns and seeks out chang-ing market conditions for a niche.

Work Positive and win at work by fo-cusing on a winning outcome, others, and opportunities!

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Nega-tive World (Entrepreneur Press). Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.



PaperChain: Promoting Community Papersby John Draper

“What or who is PaperChain?” “What do they do?” “What does it mean to me?” …quite possibly the top ques-tions anyone who has ever served on the PaperChain committee has fielded from publishers across the country.

Let’s break each one down.

“What or who is PaperChain?” Pa-perChain is a national entity created to promote the community paper in-dustry. PaperChain is steered by an all-volunteer committee of publish-ers, managers, and free paper associa-tion directors. These individuals are deeply invested and passionate about the industry, just like every publisher across the country. These individu-als believe that a cohesive effort to promote community papers can yield greater results at a higher level than what most state, regional, or national associations might be able to achieve alone.

If you work for or operate an audited free publication, and are a member of any of the various state, regional, or national associations, you are Paper-Chain. You are part of an industry standard based on audited circulation that delivers results with every publi-cation. When rolled up, this standard represents a circulation of over 44.2 million.

“What do they do?” It is the mission of PaperChain to promote this industry that is based on this reliable, trusted, and audited circulation. In order to achieve this, we look at two audiences.

The first is media buyers. PaperChain works very closely with SRDS which is a data clearing house for media buyers.

Over 15,000 users pay to have access to the data SRDS gathers. They access this data over 300,000 times a year. PaperChain and SRDS (with great as-sistance from CVC) have created list-ings within the SRDS database for each of our PaperChain publications. We are putting your publication’s infor-mation in front of media buyers, plan-ners, and executives. Our partnership does not stop there. Amongst other things, we have negotiated premium search placement, links to CVC audits, and PaperChain endorsement identifi-cation. So not only are you listed, but you get special treatment for even bet-ter awareness. In addition to SRDS, we promote the industry through various social media, press releases, and our own website, www.paperchain.com.

Our second audience is your readers. PaperChain has endeavored to part-ner with the industry associations to promote Community Paper Month at a local level. Our promotions take the strength of free papers and localize it for your market. We strongly encour-age you to participate in this national campaign which will be coming to you for July of 2014.

PaperChain does not sell ads. We be-lieve that the best sales reps in the in-dustry are yours. Our objective is to promote, create awareness, and build strength, then allow you to capitalize in your markets for the benefit of your publication.

“What does it mean to me?” Paper-Chain is an endorsement of your pub-lication. It is something to be proud of. This holds true for the media buy-er audience we are working to bring to you as well as your local audience.

Great investments have been made on your behalf. Investments such as the audits, the SRDS partnership, and Community Paper Month promotions are yours to take advantage of.

PaperChain means you have a low-cost marketing arm. Purchased by yourself, an SRDS marketing package would cost you thousands of dollars annually. PaperChain, in coordination with the various trade associations, is handling this for you. As mentioned above, we are promoting at the macro level, and you can capitalize on this in your local markets.

So now that I’ve answered these ques-tions, as best as possible in limited space, I have a question for you? “Will you work with us?”

PaperChain’s strength is derived from the strength of the state, regional, and national associations, and the strength of each of the PaperChain publications. We are asking you to continue your ef-forts to build a reputable publication in your local market, to support your trade associations through the sales and publication of network ads, to get involved in Community Paper Month, and to promote the PaperChain brand within your publication. And finally, if you would like to join the efforts of the PaperChain committee we look forward to that opportunity and look forward to hearing from you.



who have heard every closing tactic ad salespeople are taught to use. They of-ten resent the obvious manipulation to get them to commit and in most cas-es, prematurely. A case in mind: one prospect actually named every closing technique…as the salesperson tried it. Then he promptly escorted the sales-person out of his office without giving the salesperson the order or another appointment.

ARE THEY THE ONE WITH THE DECISION TO BUY?

Many times the prospect is concerned about looking bad in front of their business associates, if a decision to buy turns out to be a bad one. There-fore, they are much less likely to yield to pressure to close on the spot. They will be turned off by attempts to close them into making a decision before they are satisfied that those responsi-ble for concurring in the decision have all the facts…and are all convinced the advertising campaign is the one they should buy.

In summary, the adage “close early and often” is inappropriate. But the slogan I like best is to “give them a big stack of benefits for their little stack of money.” When perceived value is substantially higher than the cost, good things hap-pen…for the advertising salesperson.

Bob Berting is a professional speaker, newspaper sales trainer, and publisher marketing consultant who has conducted over 1500 live seminars, tele-seminars, and webinars for newspaper sales staffs, their customers, print media associations and trade associations in the US and Canada.

Contact Bob at 800-536-5408 or [email protected]. He is located at 6330 Woburn Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46250.

The “Close”continued from page 5

Advanced Selling Skills For The Advertising Sales ProeBook now on sale

www.adsalespro.comBob Berting, newspaper marketing consultant, has published his new e-book for sales professionals in the newspaper industry entitled “Advanced Selling Skills For The Advertising Sales Pro”. This is a publication for beginning salespeople to learn advanced selling techniques and experienced salespeople tosharpen their selling skills. Salespeople can learn more about this publication by using the link www.adsalespro.com and see the table of contents as well as reading the complimentary first chapter. The cost to download the eBook is only $24.95.

Bob Berting is a professional speaker, newspaper sales trainer, publisher, and marketing consultant who has conducted over 1500 live seminars and tele-sem-inars for newspaper sales staffs, their customers, and print media associations in the U.S. and Canada. His 40 year background includes 15 years in newspaper management, 5 years as university marketing instructor, and owner of a full service advertising agency for 20 years..

Bob can be contacted at [email protected] or 800-536-5408. He is located at 6330 Woburn Drive, Indianapolis, In 46250.

$24.95

Community PapersWorking For You

Will the Internet kill your community paper?Did instant coffee kill coffee?

New technologies change many things. But not everything. You may tweet, blog, surf, shop, or search online but you continue to read your free community paper. You just proved it.

Readership of community papers is now higher than the big papers, and continues to grow. Rather than being replaced by “instant” media, your local community paper has become an important part of our neighborhood.

The reason, which sometimes is not heard because of all the noise about the Internet, is pretty obvious: your community paper does what the Internet doesn’t. We promote connections at a local level. Community papers join readers and advertisers in ways digital media don’t.

In fact, the local content and power of your community paper makes advertising even more effective. We are the number one medium for driving purchases. That’s important in every product category.

Including coffee.



TCNA Newspaper and Local Media Summit: TCNA (Texas Community Newspaper Association) will have a Summit on May 2 & 3, 2014 at the Holiday Inn on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. This summit is not your

Conference Scheduleordinary ‘talking heads’ conference. Instead we’ve recruited some of the best minds to lead discussions on our industry’s future and how to make it even brighter. You know you gain more useful information talking with other folks just like you that are facing the same challenges

NEW LOAD LEVELING RULE PUBLISHED

USPS TO HONOR EXISTING CUSTOMER SERVICE RULINGS

On March 5, 2014, the Postal Service published in the Federal Register its fi-nal rule concerning the load leveling plan that will make changes in service standards for mail brought to Destina-tion Sectional Center Facilities (DSCF) for Standard Mail. The new service standard goes into effect on April 10, 2014.

Under the rule, the service standard for mail entered after 4:00 p.m. on Thurs-day, and entered on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, will change from 3-days to 4-days. A chart accompanies this col-umn showing the scope of the limited change in service standards.

The load leveling rule was a Postal Service response to its belief that Fri-day was becoming a very heavy mail entry day for Standard Mail and that this created pressures, including extra costs and overtime, for Monday deliv-eries. The addition of one more day to the service standard is expected to

USPS Updatehelp the Postal Service cut costs and reduce the pressure for Monday deliv-ery.

The Saturation Mailers Coalition (SMC) had contacted Postal Service officials, and submitted comments to the Federal Register asking about the existing customer service ruling that SMC had obtained in June 2012, re-garding the importance of honoring mailers’ requested in-home date for mail that is not automated remain in effect. The final published rule noted these comments and contained the following comments and assurances:

Under current policy, local postal managers are expected to respond to properly submitted in-home delivery date requests by exploring whether, in the normal course of operations, op-portunities exist to process and deliver mail in a manner that is consistent with applicable service standards and requested in-home dates. The DSCF Standard Mail service change is not in-tended to effect the current procedures through which mailers may request delivery on or by a specific date within

the applicable service standard.

In a communication SMC shared with members about the new rule, Execu-tive Director Donna Hanbery urged mailers to save a copy of this Feder-al Register publication and the June 2012 customer support ruling that describes how Saturation, High Den-sity or Carrier Route pieces entered at a DDU or SCF could be labeled as non-machinable and non-barcoded with a requested in-home date. Han-bery urged SMC members and free paper publishers to save a copy of these documents, including the new rule section containing a commitment to honor mailers’ in-home dates so long as they were consistent with ap-plicable service standards.

What does this mean as a practical manner? Hopefully publishers that are entering mail at either a DDU or SCF will see no change in their mail operations or the Postal Service’s abil-ity to honor in-home dates.

Once again, the load leveling rule does not make changes in the follow-

continued on page 11

you are. So, we’re going to turn the usual conference upside down and have conversations, discussions, and face-to-face meetings instead of sitting in a cold hotel meeting room listening to total strangers. You’ll be talking with your fellow industry leaders. Call Douglas Fry, the TexCAP Guy, at 931.223.5708 for more information.



ing mail or mail entries:

Standard Mail dropped at a DDU

EDDM - Retail

Periodicals/newspapers

First Class or Priority Mail

OTHER POSTAL NEWS AND UPDATES

PERIODICAL WEIGHTSIn February 2014, the Postal Service raised the maximum weight limit for periodical flat mail from 20 ounces to 24 ounces under certain condition. The rule change was a result of indus-try requests and testing that showed the heaver pieces could be processed on Postal Service equipment.

EVERY DOOR DIRECT MAIL ADDS NEW DEMOGRAPHIC

FEATURESGary Reblin, USPS Vice President New Products and Innovation announced that the Postal Service had improved its online website features for mail-ers and customers using Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) to help local businesses with tools to find better demographic data about age, house-hold income and size, for determining target zip codes and carrier routes for the EDDM product. The new tool is called “Quick Check” and is designed to help mailers and small businesses better target potential customers.

FIRST CATALOG NSA FILEDIn March 2014, the Postal Service, and the cataloger Potpourri, announced and filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission, the first Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) that would

reward a cataloger, Potpourri, with a rebate calculated based on increases over an established volume threshold of catalogs entered as Standard Mail carrier route flats.

In press releases describing the pro-posed NSA, the Postal Service point-ed out that catalogs entered as carrier route flats provided valuable contribu-tion and revenue to the Postal Service, both in terms of the pieces mailed and the multiplier effect, with additional mail generated with First Class state-ments, payments, and parcels sent by mail to fulfill catalog orders. Pointing to this “multiplier effect,” represen-tatives of the catalog industry have urged the Postal Service to recognize the value of catalogs both in pieces sent and the “downstream,” multiplier mail, generated by catalog sales, bill-ings, payments and correspondences.

The Postal Service described the NSA

as, hopefully, increasing the carrier route flats that Potpourri would mail and stimulating other catalogers to in-crease the density of their mailings to qualify for carrier route flat treatment.

Once approved by the Postal Regula-tory Commission, other similarly situ-ated businesses or catalogers could also seek the same rebates or benefits under the NSA by showing that they have similar mail products and com-parable growth thresholds.

USPS Updatecontinued from page 10

Leaders think and talk about solutions. Followers think and talk about problems.

Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.

Brian Tracy



I t’s the 50th anniversary of the Texas Community News-paper Association, and we’re celebrating this golden occasion by relaunching and rejuvinating our organiza-

tion with a party on the Riverwalk.

If you’ve attended this event in the past couple of years, we can prom-ise we’ve breathed new life into our annual convention. We’ll have an awards banquet on Saturday night, but other than that, almost every-thing has changed.

For starters, there won’t be any dark, cold rooms with sleepy speakers. No, this is a Summit designed for those of us who have battled through the tough times and are ready to get re-invigorated about what we do.

We’ll start the Summit with a Friday evening reception by the pool. We’ll buy you a drink or two and keep the

cash bar open. After that, folks are free to have dinner on their own.

Saturday, we’ll have exhibitors and a series of talks that are nothing like what you’ve seen before. Among them are:

1. Why community newspapers and local media sur-vived the storm. It’s time to start growing again.

2. The best way to make money at your offi ce, and why your presentation really matters (we promise you’ll leave with a new approach to making money).

3. The Art of Relevancy: If you build it, they still come – no matter if it’s print or digital.

4. A roundtable devoted to getting rid of the myths about our business.

5. A “Worst Ideas Session,” where we have a little fun with the areas we’ve failed and the introduction of some ideas that won’t fail.

This is short notice, but if you’ve ever attended a TCNA con-vention and you’re worried you won’t get anything from it, we’ll make you a money-back guarantee. You’ll have a blast. The cost is so cheap, we’re not sure you can afford to miss it.

About the Summit

Registration Information

$50 for your offi ce.(It doesn’t matter if you bring one person or 10, $50 covers everyone)

What you get for $50?• Friday evening reception• Saturday morning breakfast• Refreshing day-long summit• Saturday night dinner and awards

Hotel ReservationsThe Holiday Inn on the Riverwalk has been completely remodeled and renovated, and we’ve got a special conference rate

$125/night (normally $150/night)This price is the same whether your room is single or double occupancy.

Registration and hotel reservations must be made by April 10.

Reserve your room at the Holiday Inn at (210) 224-2500. Tell them you’re with TCNA.

Register with the attached form and send to: [email protected]

orCall to register at (713) 686-8494.

Make sure to ask for TCNA registration. (Credit cards accepted)

New Date • New Event

Convention

only $50 Entire offi ce

The Details



Registration Form

NEW Date

NEW Event

Please Return To:[email protected]

or mail to:TCNA Summit

P.O. Box 924487Houston, TX 77292

If you have any questions, call (931) 223-5708. Ask for Douglas Fry

Publication Name:

Address:

City: State: Zip:

HOTELREGISTRATION

You will receive a special rate of $125/night if you

call the Holiday Inn on the Riverwalk and tell them

you’re with TCNA.

Call (210) 224-2500 and book your rooms.

Deadline for booking is April 10.

Who’s Coming – $50 for the whole group** If your group reserves hotel rooms. If not, cost is $60/person

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Payment Options

_____ Check Enclosed • Make Payable to TEXCAP • Mail to: P.O. Box 924487, Houston, TX 77292

_____ Charge My Credit Card • Name on Card _________________________________________

Card # ____________________________________________ Exp. Date: ______________ CV: ___________

Don’t need ahotel room?

Registration costs are$60/person.

Total Due _______________________________________$50 for group with hotel • $60/person if no hotel room



National Newspaper AssociationPO Box 7540 Columbia, MO 65205-7540

@nnaonline - www.nnaweb.org Press ReleaseFor Immediate Release Contact: Sara Walsh, Programs & Outreach Mgr March 6, 2014 (573) 777-4980 [email protected]

Kidsville News! sponsors NNA’s 2014 NAE contestCOLUMBIA, MO —For the third year in a row, Kidsville News!, a literacy and educational newspaper initiative based in Fayetteville, NC, has stepped up to sponsor the National Newspaper Association’s Newspaper And Education contest.

“Since 1998 the Kidsville News! Literacy and Educational resource program has played a very important role in the success of community newspapers,” said Bill Bowman, president and founder of Kidsville News! “In addition to sponsoring the NAE contest, we are extremely proud and excited to continue to license our unique, successful and profitable NIE program with numerous members of the NNA,” said Bowman.

“We thank Kidsville News! for its generous support in helping us recognize the significant role newspapers play in supporting community educational programs,” said NNA Contest Chair Jeff Farren, publisher of the Kendall County Record in Yorkville, IL. “This generous sponsorship will ensure each of the contest’s 10 first place winners will receive a check for $100 and an award certificate,” he said.

NNA believes successful newspaper education partnerships should be celebrated, so it has created this enhanced Newspaper In Education contest to highlight newspaper/school partnerships (levels K through community college) that focus on developing fully informed citizens. Both traditional Newspaper In Education programs and non-traditional programs are eligible for entry.

The contest is open to NNA member and non-member newspapers. It will recognize newspapers that have established internships, supported school programs, assisted student journalists and helped local education through activities that reach beyond news coverage. Entries must have been published or carried out between July 1 2013 and June 30, 2014. The deadline for entries is July 1, 2014. More information can be found on NNA'swebsite.

Contest winners will be informed if they have won by August 2014, and will also be acknowledged during the NNA’s 128th Annual Convention & Trade Show, October 2-5, 2014, in San Antonio, TX.

Newspapers interested in more information about bringing Kidsville News! into their community, can find more information by visiting their website at kidsvillenews.com

Questions? Contact Sara Walsh at: 573-777-4980, Facebook: @nnasarawalsh, Twitter: @sarawalsh_nna or Email: [email protected]

Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association is the voice of America’s community newspapers and the largest newspaper association in the country. The nation’s community papers inform, educate and entertain nearly 150 million readers every week.

tcnatoday april 2014

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