www.newsandtech.com www.newsandtech.com November/December 2019

The premier resource for insight, analysis and technology integration in newspaper and hybrid operations and production.

Raised from the dead: The Bigfork Eagle lives! u by Marc Wilson Special to News & Tech

Editor’s Note: The Bigfork, Montana, half that in the winter. The town Eagle resumed publication on Oct. 30. — some call it a village — sits on What’s the big deal with the rebirth of a small-town weekly newspaper? Our Marc the shores of Flathead Lake near Wilson tells you the back story. the confluence of the Swan and Flathead rivers. The snow-capped The most difficult — and re- Swan Mountains rise over the warding — job I ever had was edi- town to the west. Bigfork is used tor/publisher/janitor of the Bigfork by many as a gateway to Glacier Eagle, a small weekly newspaper National Park and the Bob Mar- in rural northwest Montana. shall Wilderness. Gourmet restau- My wife and I ran and co- rants serve a clientele that lives or owned the Eagle for 14 years be- camps on the edge of wilderness. fore selling it in 1997 so I could Visitors are reminded that grizzly devote fulltime to building Town- bears are first on the food chain in News, which we’d started in the Montana. No joke. back shop of the Eagle in 1989. It’s a beautiful place to live or Lee Enterprises bought the visit, but a very difficult place to Eagle from us before selling it to make a living or run a business, Hagadone Newspapers in the including a weekly newspaper. early 2000s. Hagadone also owns Four years ago, Hagadone shut the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, down the Eagle, citing financial 17 miles from Bigfork. losses. Bigfork is an unincorporated Although disappointed, I un- community of some 10,000 resi- derstood. dents in the summer and about Bigfork continues on page 8 FTI’s Doucette on evolving paywalls, models u by Mary REARDON News & Tech MANAGING Editor

News & Tech caught up with Pete Douc- Technology at oft-cited FTI Consulting, head- his firm has completed and provides his takes ette, managing director of Telecom, Media & quartered in Washington, D.C. on paywalls and subscriptions. At FTI, Doucette recently developed the Subscriptions News & Tech: What can you tell us about Lab, a partnership with the studies or material FTI has produced recently Google News Initiative. Before or will produce? Turn to joining FTI, Doucette was the Doucette: Two major focus areas of FTI Con- chief consumer revenue offi- sulting’s current work with the newspaper in- page 37 cer at Boston Globe Media. He dustry are the growth of digital subscriptions for expanded speaks globally on subscription for publishers along with the digital transfor- models, digital transformation mation of the traditional seven-day printing industry and other industry matters. and distribution operating model. coverage Doucette updates News & With regard to digital subscriptions, FTI Tech readers on recent research Doucette continues on page 6

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 1 www.newsandtech.com

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ABB-Ad_Newsandtech_228x276_a.indd 1 21.07.2017 07:51:57 www.newsandtech.com Yearlong project aims to keep digital news from disappearing u by Tara McMeekin Contributing Writer

The Reynolds Journalism Institute is doing its part to ensure that In a nutshell, he said the project comes down to making sure digital news doesn’t lose its place in the annals of history. To cham- that digital news content is available, identifiable, uncorrupted, pion that cause, RJI and its home-base school — the University of and ultimately retrievable. And McCain warns that the cloud isn’t Missouri — have partnered on a project that calls on news outlets foolproof. to take a key role in preserving digital news. “Even though we think of the cloud as this virtual ether, there are The project — funded by a $250,000 grant from The Andrew W. still physical devices involved and those things can break down,” Mellon Foundation — builds on work done by RJI’s Journalism Dig- he said. ital News Archive and the Dodging the Memory Hole conferences. Furthermore, he said digital content has to be renderable, which From 2014 to 2017, those conference brought together librarians, can become a major challenge as software and systems change and memory institutions, newsroom leaders and others to engage in a evolve. dialogue about preserving and protecting news content. Over the course of a year, the team will visit news outlets across Competitive advantage the U.S. and Europe to identify and pose solutions to the techno- Besides helping to document history, maintaining thorough ar- logical and other obstacles hampering the preservation of online chives gives news organizations a great competitive advantage that content. sets them apart. “This is an impending problem,” Edward McCain, digital curator “Organizations like The New York Times are using theirs as a prof- of journalism at RJI and the University of Missouri Libraries told it center,” McCain said, citing Amazon’s “Modern Love,” which is News & Tech. McCain heads up the Journalism Digital News Ar- based on the longtime NYT weekly column-turned-podcast — and chive — or Journalism DNA as it referred to in a clever nod to the now turned television series. essence of news. Other organizations stand to benefit as well, he said, citing the “For thousands of years we’ve been used to storing information NFL and NBA, which have also invested in systems to preserve and on paper, so we know what we’re doing with that,” he said. “If you access content. This should be a large priority, but McCain knows store a paper in a cool, dry place you will be able to read it — the that it must also make financial sense for news outlets. language may be different, but it will be there.” “That’s why we are looking at those issues of profitability and Through the project, McCain said he hopes to establish a robust how it can be leveraged — and it goes to the core of what differenti- and complete news archive that enables thorough and responsible ates journalists vs. someone just spouting off on a blog somewhere. reporting now and into the future. We have this record of our communities, and we worked hard to “The way of preserving things is different now as is the way that get it right, so there is certainly value there.” things can break or disappear — for example in migrating from one CMS to another,” McCain said. “It takes a lot of careful planning to Finding partners not lose information.” Journalism DNA is interested in working with vendors including For Journalism DNA’s part, McCain said it’s key to work with the TownNews and its partner newspapers to find out how they’re solv- technologists in the newsroom as well as the journalists — although ing archiving challenges, and in turn, share those solutions with the journalists are ultimately the ones that must drive this. other organizations. It’s also tapping into large publishers includ- ing McClatchy and its technology and data center in Raleigh, North Newsroom response Carolina, as well as public radio affiliates and other news organiza- So far, the news organizations McCain has reached out to have tions. been receptive to participating in the project, and are largely “My goal is to give the news industry great information about bought into the notion that there is a need to safeguard digital and what they can do,” McCain said. “We all have an interest in hang- online news. ing onto our work, and as individuals we have to take charge of “There are still some challenges because it’s still early days, so what we’ve done. We want all of the hard work that went into the most people are unsure what digital preservation really means,” recording of history to survive and not be in vain.” McCain said. “There are different models and different ways.” The ultimate vision is to use the insights gained over the coming To that end, the group is looking at a variety of activities and year to improve CMS systems and other platforms to ensure the goals for archiving news that address myriad challenges. Among survival and future use of content. The results of the study will be them, McCain pointed to the pitfalls of digital, including the ease published in a report to be released a year from now. with which content can be changed or altered, whether intention- Any news outlets or newspaper industry vendors interested in ally or unintentionally. He said he’s even heard from newspapers participating in the study are encouraged to contact RJI. p that are shutting down and have no plan for preserving or archiving their content and preventing it from disappearing.

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 3 November/December 2019

contents Volume 31, No. 6 FTI’s Doucette on evolving paywalls, models 1 News & Tech P.O. Box 478 Beaver Dam, WI 53916 Raised from the dead: The Bigfork Eagle lives! 1 Check out p: 303.575.9595 www.newsandtech.com Yearlong project aims to keep Editor & Publisher digital news from disappearing Mary L. Van Meter 2 [email protected] Art Director Google, TownNews partner on dynamic paywall 5 Violet Cruz [email protected] News & Tech’s new Managing Editor Tech to shatter paywall barriers 10 Mary Reardon expanded coverage [email protected] Parse.ly’s Conversions tracks the path to a buy 12 Contributing Writer starting on page 37 of Tara McMeekin [email protected] ‘Coach, this is PostRobo3 calling’ 13 the digital edition at Contributing Writer Marcus Wilson Newspaper moving more ops to the cloud 14 [email protected] www.newsandtech.com Contributing Writer Kirsten Staples Mid America rolls out free waste audit 20 [email protected]

Geldermann: Drupa a must in times of change 22 We’re PUBLISHING GROUP President News Hub Media adds AI4Images.com to lineup 23 James E. Conley Jr. Overflowing! DIGITAL EDITION OFF THE RECORD: iFRA World Publishing Expo 24 In partnership with Olive Software, News & Tech is available as a digital edition, containing an exact replica of articles and advertisements. The Digital Merged association America’s Newspapers launched 28 MORE: Edition is available free of charge on our Web site, www.newsandtech.com

People News DATELINE Vendor News 30 Each Monday, News & Tech distributes Dateline, an Industry News electronic newsletter that covers breaking industry news and events. To subscribe to the free newsletter, At Print 19 in Chicago Mergers & Acquisitions send a request to [email protected] Gathered at Print 19, which ran Oct. 3–5 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, were Ronald Reedijk, SUBSCRIPTIONS managing director, QIPC-EAE Americas; Bruce Barna, vice president, The Siebold Company; Vendor News Subscriptions are free to qualified industry hoto: QI PC P hoto: Beau Campbell, vice president, The Siebold Company; Erwin van Rossem, director of global personnel. To subscribe, visit our Web site at sales and marketing, QIPC-EAE Americas; Cameron Nelson, project manager, The Siebold www.newsandtech.com, or call 303.575.9595. Company; and Richard Palmer, senior vice president, The Siebold Company. Association News ADVERTISING SALES Education To schedule advertising or confirm space availability, please contact Mary L. Van Meter at Marketing Partners 303.575.9595 or email [email protected] News & Tech, ISSN# 2150-6884, is published bimonthly by Conley Magazines, LLC, P.O. Box 478 Beaver Dam, WI 53916. Phone: 303.575.9595; columnist Fax: 303.575.9555. Copyright ©2019 by Conley Magazines, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of Marc Wilson 18 this publication may be reproduced by any means, mechanical or electronic, without the expressed consent of the publisher. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, staff or advertisers of News & Tech. The department return of unsolicited manuscripts or other material Classifieds 33-34 cannot be guaranteed. Periodicals postage paid at Denver, CO, and additional mailing offices. Free to qualified newspaper personnel. POSTMASTER: Please send 3579 for address correction request to News & Tech, 5139 Yank Court, Arvada, CO 80002

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4 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Google, TownNews partner on dynamic paywall u News & Tech Staff Report

The Google News Initiative is partnering ers who are deemed more likely to subscribe content management systems for local me- with Lee Enterprises and its digital technol- would get fewer content views, while those dia, our ability to leverage the expertise of ogy subsidiary, TownNews, to expedite the with a lower probability may be served a Lee and Google will allow TownNews to rap- development of a machine learning-based larger amount of content to sample. idly enhance our paywall technology with paywall technology. Testing on the program is set to begin in innovative features that grow revenue for all “Google and TownNews are the leading December. of our customers, and move the industry for- technology providers for our industry, and ward.” Google ML, coupled with TownNews’ tech- Openly shared “Today, publishers have access to extensive nology platform, is ideally suited to turn data “The great benefit of metering the use of our data, but making sense of the numbers and we’re already gathering into action,” said Lee sites is that it supports the high value of our putting those insights to work can be a chal- Vice President of Digital James Green. “We unique local content and drives digital sub- lenge,” said Jason Washing, managing direc- know that users engage with local news in a scriptions,” Green said. “But, it does create tor, News Partnerships at Google. “We’re variety of ways across our sites. Some visit challenges in that it limits our opportunity thrilled to use Google’s machine learning daily, while others visit much less frequently. to serve advertising to our users. We believe technology to help Lee and TownNews de- By applying artificial intelligence to infor- that a smart, dynamic meter is a huge step velop a dynamic paywall, which will provide mation such as frequency of use, the type of forward because it is a means to support both a tailored experience for readers and the right content viewed, and the location of the user, revenue streams.” meter strategy for Lee’s business. Once com- we can better serve our readers and reach Other partners chimed in on the effort. plete, this technology and associated best our audience goals.” “Streamlining the process of converting practices will be openly shared to expand According to Green, the amount of content browsers to subscribers is a crucial piece of the impact.” a user consumes before being encouraged the revenue puzzle for many of our local me- Google describes Google News Initiative, to subscribe would vary based on the user’s dia partners,” said Brad Ward, CEO of Town- launched in 2018, as the company’s effort to previous actions and a model developed by News, headquartered in Moline, Illinois, in work with the news industry to help journal- Google ML, Lee and TownNews. Those read- a news release. “As the leading provider of ism thrive in the digital age. p REMOTE INK CONTROL • Reduce Waste • Reduce Make Ready Time • Improve Quality • True sliding segmented blade offers precise and consistent metering of ink film • ROI in less than 2 years— Boost your bottom line • Custom fit solutions for all press profiles

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Doucette from page 1 scriptions were the only major category of revenue that was growing for a group of local newspaper publishers. I think over the next few years almost all local newspaper publishers will make a pivot to a digital subscription-centric model their top priority. hoto: S ubmitted P hoto: These paywalls may take different forms — metered, freemium, hybrid, hard wall etc. — but in our work with newspaper clients, I’ve found that paywalls have consistently gotten tighter, meaning less free content for read- ers. I expect the models to continue to evolve in two key areas: regis- tration where publishers require readers to provide information like an email address in order to read content, along with a shift to a dynamic model where the pay model settings are based on user data or patterns and not a one-size-fits-all approach. I also expect news- letters to become an even bigger part of the publisher tool kit, where they can have a direct relationship with consumers and provide a curated news experience.

News & Tech: What promising revenue streams do you anticipate in the near and long term? Doucette: I expect that reader revenue is going to be the centerpiece of the future sustainable operating model for local news publish- ers. What once was an approximately 70/30 revenue split between print advertising and print circulation, I expect to flip to 70/30 for digital consumer revenue vs. digital advertising revenue. I also ex- pect publishers to develop more revenue from expanded consumer products and offerings — memberships, events, experiences, etc. — but I expect them to be more of a secondary revenue stream behind subscriptions.

News & Tech: As Gannett and GateHouse complete their merger, what other moves do you anticipate in consolidation? Doucette: I think we will continue to see consolidation in the news- paper industry as publishers look for additional cost efficiencies and synergies to extend the digital transformation runway. The Gannett- GateHouse merger, because of its scale, puts additional pressure on major newspaper companies like McClatchy, Tribune Publishing, Lee and others to assess their strategic options.

News & Tech: What do you forecast as the future for print? Consulting recently published two research papers, “Critical Pub- Doucette: Print is still a very effective medium for reading daily news, lisher Benchmarks for Digital Subscription Success” and “Digital and I anticipate that print will be around in some form for a long Subscriptions Playbook,” as part of the Google News Initiative (GNI) time. I also expect publishers to begin or continue to move less-than- Subs Lab with 10 local news publishers in North America. These daily printing and distribution over the next few years, settling on a reports give industry publishers an understanding of the important Sunday or weekend print-plus-digital model in the next five years or metrics for achieving success with digital subscriptions along with a so. At that time I would also anticipate the format of the newspaper to playbook on how to execute on strategies to scale digital subscriber transition from a broadsheet to a more magazine-like print edition. growth. FTI Consulting has also developed a print-to-digital transformation News & Tech: Is there anything else you would like to tell News & model for newspapers and magazines. This financial model looks at Tech readers about the industry? baseline revenue and expense trends for publishers and compares Doucette: Our work with publishing clients along with the GNI Subs that to future operating model changes such as eliminating print on Lab shows that there appears to be a sustainable business model certain days of the week or even altogether. This powerful tool gives for local news publishers that is centered around digital subscrip- publishers visibility into when they may want to make operating tions. The challenge is that in order to achieve that new business model changes to improve their long-term financial performance. model, publishers must fundamentally transform into a new type of organization and do so quickly. Market forces are working against News & Tech: What do you see as the future of subscription models local news publishers and the time to transform is now … if they wait and paywalls? too long it may be too late. p Doucette: Recent research by FTI Consulting found that digital sub-

6 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com

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Bigfork from page 1 The town started holding community meetings about two years When we bought the Eagle in 1983, Bigfork had a grocery store, ago, and the No. 1 request of the citizens was for a “respectable, hardware store, building supply center, bank, travel agency, a small legitimate news outlet to cover our town — everyone agreed social department store, a drug store, a great book store, a downtown gas media news coverage was simply not enough,” King said. station that sold tires, an auto parts store, two motels, multiple res- At one of the community meetings, attended by 60 to 70 people, taurants, specialty shops, bars, a bowling alley, a marina, a five-star participants were asked what they wanted in a news outlet — print, dude ranch and an 18-hole golf course that was under development. online, weekly, monthly, etc. The town also had numerous small service companies — dentists, “Overwhelmingly,” King said, “they wanted a weekly, printed doctors, barbers, plumbers, auto body repair. The town still has a newspaper that costs $1 a week.” thriving artist community. The chamber took the results to the Inter Lake, and Weaver said he These businesses were almost all locally owned, and in need of could restart the Eagle if enough support could be demonstrated in promotion. subscriptions and advertising. The business owners liked dealing with fellow business owners, “I traveled around to Bigfork businesses with an ad sales rep from including me. The grocery store ran a weekly double-truck ad. The the Inter Lake,” King said. “I wanted to help get commitments from bank, hardware store, drug store, department store, building supply advertisers. Time after time, we’d meet with people who would open center, travel agency and others were regular advertisers. The state up a drawer and pull out an old copy of the Eagle. They loved that press association sold ads for its member papers. Businesses in Kal- newspaper.” ispell bought ads to attract Bigfork’s affluent residents. State Senator Bob Keenan, who ran the Bigfork Inn for many years, Bigfork residents — including many seasonal snowbirds — sup- said: “The Eagle sometimes stirred up a hornets’ nest and made peo- ported the local businesses, although there were dollars that bled to ple mad, but it was the heart of the community, and it bound us larger, sometimes less-expensive stores in Kalispell, Missoula and together. We learned the hard way that were not the same without Spokane. our newspaper.” My wife and I and our small staff of three worked long, hard hours, Weaver said subscriptions continue to come in for the re-birthed but we loved what we were doing. We always paid our bills, and newspaper, and that the Eagle has obtained “27 or 28” advertising served on various community committees. We covered every street contracts. fair, parade and festival. We wrote obits (always free) about people “The people of Bigfork want their newspaper back, and they’ve we knew and cared about. Bigfork High sports teams received exten- proved to me and my boss that they’ll support it,” Weaver said in an sive coverage, win or lose. interview. We called the Eagle “the best little newspaper in Montana,” and On Oct. 30, the Bigfork Eagle resumed publication as a tabloid. we won many awards from the state press association. Four times we Volume 39, issue 1, it says on the cover. were named the best weekly in the state. Award-winning weekly newspaper veteran MacKenzie Reiss will TownNews — then known as International Newspaper Network be in charge of news coverage. Production and ad sales will be man- — started to prosper in the mid-1990s. I decided I needed to spend aged out of the Inter Lake. Overhead, wisely, will be kept as low as full time helping fellow publishers deal with the so-called Digital possible. Revolution. (The company now helps more than 2,000 customers Weaver was quoted in an article in the Inter Lake and Eagle saying: worldwide.) “As a Flathead Valley native, I am extremely pleased and proud of So we sold the paper. The Eagle lost its local owners — and, frankly, the folks that have made this new version of the Eagle possible. With some of its passion. Hired hands were hardworking and dedicated, your help and support, the Bigfork Eagle will once again serve the but not as much as Ginny and I were. Chain ownership was viewed community for years to come.” with some skepticism by readers and advertisers. Lesson learned: Little towns need their little newspapers. Something bigger was going on too. I call it the Amazon Effect. On- Truth told, every town needs its newspaper. p line shopping and home delivery ate into the sales of Bigfork’s mer- chants, most of whom operated on very thin margins and struggled to survive lean winter months. The department store folded, followed by the travel agency, the shoe store, the book store, the hardware store and others. Business churn rose. In 2015, after years of losing money, Hagadone shut down the Ea- gle, except for a sporadic online presence. “We never made money in Bigfork,” Inter Lake (and now Eagle) Publisher Rick Weaver said. I believe him. The town hated not having a newspaper. Local sports weren’t cov- ered. The Bigfork School Board and the water and sewer board met without a pesky reporter on hand. Parades, festivals, spelling bees, golf and bowling tournament lacked promotion. Elections came and went without candidate profiles, endorsements and results. Baby and wedding photos went unpublished. No more free obits. “Our sense of community was lost,” says Rebekah King, executive director of the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce. “We tried with our chamber newsletter to fill the void, but it just wasn’t good enough.”

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Tech to shatter paywall barriers u News & Tech Staff Report

frictionless. No forms, no registration, two click-access to content. On mobile, this translates to verify with an existing ID and hit the Apple Pay button. Our entire business focus has been around making aul M c C arthy-Brain it simpler for the consumer to give the publisher money. hoto: P P hoto: N&T: How can a newspaper benefit from content monetization tech- nology? McCarthy-Brain: Although Flip-Pay started its life as a micro-payment play, it became apparent very quickly that we needed to also include full subscription management functions into the platform. Because of the unique way in which our technology was architected, the pub- lisher now has an incredible level of functionality available to them in comparison to legacy paywall solutions. In Flip-Pay, a publisher can offer standard subscriptions, day pass- es, ad-blocker charges, but at the same time sell access to bits of pre- mium content to new market segments. For example, a newspaper might have incredible college football coverage and can sell access to this content directly to the consumer for the duration of the sea- son. This package can then be pushed down social media channels to attract new readers to your content. It is also perfect for individual billing of video, podcasts, box sets, series or content categories. The most important element to take away from our platform is that it empowers the publisher to create new market segments and revenue opportunities.

N&T: Why is your company having success with content monetization tools? McCarthy-Brain: I’ve launched large scale complex systems before and integration was always a challenge. Huge amounts of documen- tation, endless project management meetings, difficult to install, sup- port and maintain. At the outset of Flip-Pay we made the platform quick and simple to integrate with a publisher, their existing BI (business intelligence) tools and suppliers. You can be up, running and testing the Flip-Pay platform in a couple of hours and monetizing shortly after that. We take the complexity and risk out of the deployment. The platform also has full analytics, reporting, customer service help-desk systems, A/B testing (creating two versions of a page to measure which campaign is the most effective), API (application pro- At the Oct. 8–9 World Publishing Expo in Berlin, Germany, Mary gramming interface) integration and more. Everything that is required L. Van Meter, publisher of News & Tech, caught up with the founder to run an operation like this, plus our team are iterating the platform and CEO of Flip-Pay, Paul McCarthy-Brain. Following is a discussion daily. It reduces costs for the publisher, simplifies operations and of the next generation of content monetization technology and the most importantly drives new revenue into the bank account. launch of his company. N&T: Why have paywalls failed in the past? N&T:Tell us about Flip-Pay and how you decided to start the company. McCarthy-Brain: There has always been an expectation that digital McCarthy-Brain: Our business started as an R&D project to examine publishers should give their premium content away for free and be the challenges facing digital publishers in the face of declining ad ad supported. This has led some publishers to focus on impressions revenue and a customer base unused to paying for content. Initially and thus a general lowering of content or perceived value of that our focus was with micro-payments, digital wallets and understand- content when a viral headline can boost metrics. Simply asking for ing why the internet was littered with the corpses of failed attempts. money for this content doesn’t work as the consumer sees what is in Our first job was to understand why they had failed before we started effect, click bait. to construct new technology. It turned out that it wasn’t a payment is- The reason why The New York Times, Washington Post, etc. have sue at all. The problem was actually an identity management issue. In success with subscriptions is that their content has intrinsic value. order to get people to pay frequently, you need to make it completely Paywalls are on or off, you have access or you don’t. With Flip-Pay

10 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com

you can up-sell content from within your freemium estate — there for app sales and are building out home delivery systems to integrate u NEWs & TEch is no on-off just a series of sales opportunities to monetize the con- with digital bundles. sumer, then up-sell them some more. Paywalls are too restrictive and We are in the process of launching a streaming service for a global this is the problem we set out to solve. sports team as our platform is perfect for creating a Netflix-style sys- tem with pay-per-view options. N&T: what is the future of paywalls and content monetization? Now that word is spreading about what we are doing, we’ve also mccarthy-Brain: Natural language processing, graphing databases now been engaged by publishers in the Far East and Europe and in- and machine learning. Flip-Pay built a recommendations engine terest is growing rapidly. based on NLP that ingests the content produced by the publisher, Flip-Pay is a Google Technical Partner and has worked closely identifies people, places, events, brands, items and key words then with Google on developing our global-scale cloud architecture. This places this in a graphing database, like that used by Facebook, to scales on demand and dynamically, providing the publisher with the measure the relationship between articles. This worked incredibly confidence to know that the system is resilient, secure, fast and will well. We soon realized that we could pair this data with viewing and grow with your traffic. purchasing data and feed that back to the editorial staff so they now We've also won some awards for our technology, which was a know what is selling and what isn’t so that could make more of the huge honor for us. content that attracted subscriptions/sales. Machine learning (sometimes referred to as AI, but it’s not) also has N&T: how easy is it to set up? a huge role to play in the future of publications. Flip-Pay employs it in mccarthy-Brain: It was designed from the ground up to be simple to A/B testing, to measure the effectiveness of a campaign and to modify integrate so the publishers’ focus can be on the content and brand- it on the fly to alter language and prices based upon demographics, ing. We have two models, first a JavaScript component to get started time, historical actions, etc. We are also starting to do pattern analy- rapidly. Injected into every single page, and Flip-Pay does all the sis on behavioral data to increase the effectiveness of recommenda- heavy lifting. Then we have an API model, where app developers can tions and the placement of calls to actions. talk directly to our systems. You can deploy Flip-Pay into literally any device, mobile, app, desktop, AMP, set-top box, tablet, digital voice N&T: what are some of your company successes? assistant and more. We’ve had publishers get the system set up in mccarthy-Brain: We trialed the technology in an Irish-based national their test environments in a matter of hours, not months, and that for newspaper and the publisher is now rolling it out to their entire estate us is key. If it is simple to set up, configure and get running, it's easier covering all national titles and regional papers. This is going live in to support and maintain. Uptime is everything. the next few weeks. We also integrate with iTunes and Google Play www.flip-pay.com.p

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News & Tech November/December 2019 u 11 www.newsandtech.com Parse.ly’s Conversions tracks the path to a buy u by Kirsten Staples Contributing Writer

When considering what turns a site visitor bers are displayed nice and neatly, where you’d verting session, including the page where con- into a conversion, the leading question is how expect to find them, at the top of the report,” Bier- version occurred. This allows the business to website content made that conversion a reality. ly said. “The Conversions report provides both see all pages that contributed to a conversion The answer is critical to business success, but is a simple overview and plenty of detail, too. We within that session. hardly ever easy to come by. created a standard set of options for companies to • Pages Before Conversion gives credit to every Parse.ly, the content analytics company, an- track conversions and attribution. By providing page except the page where conversion oc- nounced in late October its new Conversions pre-set parameters, business users can quickly curred. This makes it easy to see what pages platform, aimed at bringing simplicity to how make sense of the Conversions report. No data were visited on the path to conversion. This is content drives conversions. It is an add-on to the scientist interpreter required,” Bierly said. a good option if a user is measuring, say, sub- existing Parse.ly Analytics platform. scriptions, where the conversion to buying a “Conversions paints a clear picture of how con- Simplicity subscription always happens on the same page tent influences conversion, showing not just the In the spirit of maintaining simplicity, Conver- of a site. tipping point, but the routes and pathways that sions offers users three attribution models to view Companies also have the option to view con- audiences take as they engage with the brand based on what they find relevant to their business. versions by conversion type: lead capture (when along the journey to conversion. Whether a com- Attribution shows patterns in how content influ- a user provides identifying details via a form), link pany needs content to help fill a job application enced a consumer to become a conversion. Con- click, newsletter signup, subscription and pur- funnel or drive paid subscriptions, Conversions versions attribution options are Last Touch, Linear chase. Users can create labels that fit under each gives a big picture and fine detail view of content and Pages Before Conversion. Bierly describes the conversion type, which allows for more personal- impact,” said Melissa Bierly, product manager, attribution models as follows: ization when attributing a conversion to content. Parse.ly. • Last Touch gives 100 percent of the credit to the According to Bierly, nearly 60 percent of Con- The Conversions report is presented in the form page where conversion occurred. Companies versions users are media and entertainment com- of infographics and tables, as opposed to a wordy can use this model when trying to understand panies. This is the infancy of the platform, but report. what content finally pushed someone to con- Parse.ly is hoping its simple approach will pro- “We go ahead and do the math, breaking down vert. vide value to companies looking to better under- conversions by categories that have meaning to • Linear (also known as “equal weighting”) gives stand consumers’ conversion actions. p all types of stakeholders. Those conversion num- equal credit to every page viewed in the con-

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12 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com

‘Coach, this is PostRobo3 calling’ u by Marc Wilson Special to News & Tech The resource-strapped Denver Post has con- tinely called the Post sports department with game every major college football home and away game tracted with a Seattle software company that will results, stats and quotes. Winning coaches wanted in Colorado and Wyoming (Colorado, Colorado create prep sports stories without the helping hand to see their players’ names published in the Post, so State, Air Force Academy, Northern Colorado, Wy- or insights of humans. they were especially cooperative. oming and sometimes the smaller colleges such as Data Skrive will “provide Colorado high school Not so much for coaches whose teams lost. Colorado Mines). football fanatics with automatic game recaps,” says They’d just as soon forget the game, and didn’t re- Saturday afternoons at the Post sports depart- a news release issued by the software company and ally care if the Post carried a story about the loss. ment were hectic as sports writers and columnists the newspaper. At that time, the Post published a Saturday after- called in stories from multiple locations across the Data Skrive describes itself as a SaaS technol- noon edition, and we part-timers couldn’t go home nation. ogy platform “producing contextually relevant, until we had tracked down every single prep game The Post covers the city’s big four — NFL Bron- ready-to-publish content. Whether audiences want story in the state. cos, MLB Rockies, NBA Avalanche and NHL Nug- text, infographics, slide shows, or interactive con- After midnight, we part-timers would take invento- gets — very well. But most everything else is an tent, the Data Skrive platform drives engagement. ry and determine which games were in and — more afterthought, or just plain ignored. The Seattle-based company generates additional importantly — which coaches hadn’t called in. Early deadlines often mean night games even of media-rich content for the Associated Press, col- We split up the workload and called and woke the big four aren’t over before the presses roll. lege athletic departments, minor league baseball the coaches. We told them we weren’t going away Today, the Post has many fewer sports writers, clubs and more.” until they dug out their score books and gave us a photographers and columnists. Deadlines are much One of my first journalist jobs was writing prep box score and a few highlights. earlier. So, I guess adding artificial intelligence (AI) sports stories for The Denver Post in the 1970s. We knew prep sports teams, coaches and players software to write stories is better than nothing. Way back then, the Post considered itself the well. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, as Now computers will be converting data into sto- newspaper of record for Colorado. I was one of ABC’s Wide World of Sports used to say. ries that once had a human touch. three or four part-timers who worked every Friday That was a long time ago during a different era of Better than no coverage. night during the football and basketball seasons. newspapering. My guess is that back then the Post I wonder if the computer will call up delinquent We were charged with tracking down scores, box sports department had as many staff members as all coaches at 2 a.m.? scores and game stories for EVERY high school in employees employed today by the Post. “Coach, this is PostRobo3 calling. I need your the state. Today, the Post sports department has a greatly data. I must have your data!”. p For the most part, coaches or their assistants rou- diminished staff and budget. The Post once covered

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 13 www.newsandtech.com Newspaper moving more ops to the cloud u News & Tech Staff Report egas Review-Journal hoto: L as V P hoto:

The Las Vegas-Review Journal prints a number of commercial jobs across its Newsliner and Ron Ehrhardt Didde presses. Its updated prepress workflow will position the publisher to court more com- [email protected] mercial work in the future. 717 329 4231 Cloud-based software certainly isn’t a new technology. In fact, the term cloud-based was first coined by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at a conference in August 2006 — and the concept itself arguably dates back much further. No matter the exact date of inception, industries of all different types have been reaping the benefits of cloud-hosted systems for over a de- cade. But for some industries with a lot of moving parts, adoption has been slower. Newspapers certainly fit that criteria, with many pub- lishers still relying on a mix of cutting-edge technology and legacy systems. Prepress operations is one area where newspapers have experienced the widest adoption of cloud-based systems, and reaped the great- est benefit. What used to be the domain of big-name newspapers is now seeing more small publishers as well. Pressroom controls and operations have begun to follow suit and there’s little doubt we’ll see increasing adoption of cloud-based systems in press and postpress operations in the next decade and beyond. Denton Publications of Elizabethtown, New York, is among the smaller publishers that have moved critical prepress operations to the cloud. Denton publishes newspapers including The Sun Community News, which serves Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton and Warren counties in New York state, and The Vermont Eagle, based in Middle- bury. The publisher’s history dates back to 1948. “In the 1950s we got a small 5-unit Goss Community press and we are now at 22 units, but we were still handling prepress in a fairly old-fashioned way,” Dan Alexander, president of Denton Publications, AH Tensor International LLC 10330 Argonne Woods Dr. told News & Tech. “Switching to the cloud has allowed us to move to Suite 300 newer versions of software.” Woodridge, IL 60517 Phone: (630) 739 9600 Denton’s previous prepress processes were based on Adobe InDe- www.ustensor.com sign. “Eliminating those manual processes has allowed our designers to

14 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com get back to doing the jobs they were meant to do,” Alexander said. Besides printing approximately 71,000 copies of The Sun, Denton produces roughly 35 weeklies and a handful of monthlies and college papers. All of those jobs run through NewsWay. Press Control Solutions Prepress integration Denton completed installation of the hosted version of ProImage’s For Any Press. NewsWay and associated software in October. Alexander said the move has enabled the automation of several prepress processes, in- cluding integration with the publisher’s ink presetting software from Print is always on the move. In dynamic markets, QuickSet Corporation. printers need to adapt to new conditions, sometimes Alexander said color registration is now “next to perfect,” and that without the investment of capital equipment costs. Our Denton is realizing significant savings on ink and paper. Next up, retrofits and upgrades for any press controls platform Denton will roll out cloud-based OnColor Eco, ProImage’s ink-opti- mization software. can make presses of any brand new again, and provide “Being in the cloud affords us all of the latest versions of these ap- the tools to develop new business models for a more plications,” Alexander said. “And certainly this has helped with effi- profitable future. ciency, allowing us to do more with fewer bodies — and to take better care of the employees we have.” www.manrolandgoss.com The Las Vegas Review-Journal has also moved its key prepress func- tions to the cloud, launching NewsWay X, OnColor Eco, and Intelli- tune earlier this year. In addition to its flagship daily — with circulation of approximately 65,000 copies daily and 85,000 on Sunday — the software is helping bolster its commercial printing offerings. The installs followed the Review-Journal’s rollout of computer-to- plate equipment from Agfa, which went live in March. “These apps can be accessed from anywhere and upgrading is simpler and faster in the cloud,” said Prepress Manager Julie Herron. “Maintenance is better managed, and as our IT staff has been reduced it’s nice to have the vendor support we need when issues arise.” Like Alexander, Herron cites the benefits of easy integration with other systems — specifically the publisher’s PitStop Server preflighting app and Asura production software. All of these apps are helping the Review-Journal to court more commercial work, which it spreads out among its double-wide Goss Newsliner press and its Didde commercial press. The workflow is integrated with both presses and the Review-Journal is producing glossy work, books and single-sheet inserts on the Didde pres. It is producing some smaller papers in Nevada and southern Utah on the Newsliner press. “We want to fill open press windows for newspapers and then we also want to get more work for the Didde press, so we are looking at add-ons to expand the options we can offer to those customers,” Her- ron said. Cloud-based image toning Meantime, AIM Media’s Ohio newspaper group deployed ProImage’s cloud-based OnColor automatic image toning and correction soft- ware across its newspapers, with great results. Managing Editor David Trinko, who oversees the Lima News and the Sentinel-Tribune in Bowling Green, said he’s received extremely posi- tive feedback from staff on the photo-toning functions in particular. “J.D. Pooley, a longtime photographer [for the Sentinel-Tribune] said the photographs haven’t ever looked this good in Bowling Green’s printed paper,” Trinko said. “They’re hearing good things about photo reproduction from the community and the press alike.” While many of publisher’s operations will remain outside the cloud for some time to come, there’s no question confidence in the cloud is growing, thanks to the simplicity and reliability of hosted solutions. p

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 15 www.newsandtech.com Newspaper Solutions, LLC

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News & Tech November/December 2019 u 17 www.newsandtech.com marc... my words Hussman seeks digital path to profitability u By Marc Wilson columnist

Walter Hussman Jr. is one of the most in- a survey later, and we found most subscribers were reading it as fre- novative — and, at times, controversial — quently as the print edition. Most said they found it hard to believe, newspaper publishers in the United States. but they actually like the newspaper better on an iPad.” He’s making news again. He’s eliminating Hussman and his team ran a number of financial scenarios and print delivery except for Sundays. found that if 70 percent of their subscribers converted from print to He is noted for buying the run-down Ar- e-edition — without reducing subscription prices — the Democrat- kansas Democrat in the early 1970s, build- Gazette could return to profitability. Electronic delivery cut printing ing it up and getting into a newspaper war and — more importantly, he said — distribution costs. with the larger (and Pulitzer Prize-winning) Hussman now has a team of some 70 employees who travel the Arkansas Gazette. Both published in the state — county by county — giving away iPads and teaching people state capital, Little Rock. how to use them. Tax benefits made buying the tablets feasible, he In the early 1990s, Gannett (which had bought the paper from the said. Patterson family in 1986) waved the white flag to end the newspaper “We have now converted subscribers from newsprint to an iPad war, and sold the Gazette to Hussman. The two papers were merged in most of the counties in the state. And they told us the same thing: into the Democrat-Gazette. they read the iPad version just as regularly, and surprisingly to them, His newspapers made money — until 2018. they like it even better.” “Over a year ago, in early 2018,” Hussman wrote in a letter to He said readers like the electronic version better because they can subscribers dated May 18, 2019, “I realized the Arkansas Democrat- easily enlarge the type, the clarity of photos is better, all photos are Gazette was at a crossroad. For the first time in over 20 years, the in color, stories and photos are easily shared electronically, and the newspaper would lose money in 2018. Our profits had declined newspaper is delivered inside the house. “The iPad edition also has every year for a decade, but we were now unprofitable and losses later news, with everyone in the state getting the city edition, and its would be mounting.” delivered almost always before 4 a.m.” he noted. He noted that advertising for all U.S. newspapers had declined Hussman hasn’t abandoned print entirely. Subscribers receive the from $46.6 billion in 2000 to $11.8 billion in 2017 — a 75 percent Sunday paper — and all the pre-printed inserts — in hard copy and decline. He noted that in 2000 newspapers accounted for 22 percent electronically. He said the Sunday print product remains profitable, of all ad revenue in the United States, but the total in 2017 had fallen thanks to pre-print revenue. to less than 5 percent. The declines likely would continue. Speaking before the first meeting of the newly created America’s “Confronted with this reality,” Hussman continued, “one logical Newspapers convention in Chicago, Hussman noted that advertisers option was to cut back on unprofitable circulation in remote areas also get a better product in the electronic edition because videos and of the state, something most newspapers had done years earlier. But other web links can be imbedded in their ads. “It’s a better advertis- realizing that newspapers are not just a business, but a public trust ing product in many ways,” he said. vital to our democracy, we tried to determine some way we could Hussman stressed at the Chicago meeting that electronic delivery continue to be a statewide newspaper delivered to all 75 counties.” only works if subscription prices remain same for electronic delivery Hussman, one of the richest men in Arkansas, then began an odys- as print delivery. sey that likely only an independent owner of substance could pur- “It has to be at least $30 a month,” he said. Many newspapers sue. charge in the $10 a month range for digital-only subscriptions. “That He began traveling to some of the most remote places in rural Ar- price won’t work,” he told his audience. kansas in an effort to convince readers to switch from print to elec- He noted that his new model is profitable while allowing him to tronic delivery of his newspaper. keep a fully staffed newsroom. The effort began in Blytheville, Arkansas, a town of some 15,000 In his letter to subscribers, Hussman summed up his efforts: people in the northeast corner of the state. The Census Bureau says “Although newspapers will never be as profitable as they once the median income in the city is $35,130, and African Americans were, we believe we have found a way to return the Arkansas Dem- comprise 61 percent of the population. ocrat-Gazette to profitability and provide a better and more robust “It was very expensive and unprofitable to deliver to 200 subscrib- reading experience for our subscribers. To do that, we need all of our ers in an area with about 5,000 households,” Hussman wrote. subscribers to embrace the iPad replica newspaper experience. … Hussman could easily — and perhaps wisely — have walked away By continuing your subscription, you will help support journalism from the Blytheville market, some 186 miles from his presses in Little and the quality of our news reporting for years to come.” Rock. His message is valuable. Let’s hope the industry is listening. p Instead, Hussman decided to persuade his 200 subscribers to switch to his e-edition product. He tried various efforts to get them Marc Wilson is founder and chairman emeritus of TownNews. He has published two to buy iPads before finally deciding to GIVE each subscriber an $800 books, "Hero Street U.S.A." and "Kidnapped by Columbus." tablet. “The Blytheville experiment was successful with over 70 percent of our subscribers converting to the iPad,” Hussman wrote. “We did

18 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 19 www.newsandtech.com Mid America rolls out free waste audit u NEWs & TEch Staff report

could your operation make Program roots more money from leftovers? The program was launched after a Voice of the Customer evaluation in Chicago-based Mid America Pa- September 2018, which Mid America did with its marketing firm, The per Recycling is pushing a new Drucker Group, also based in Illinois. initiative the company says will The new service comes at a time when China has tightened its poli- help newspapers and commer- cies on the waste it accepts. While China’s actions weren’t a direct cial printers get more out of their impetus for the new initiative, they do mean “outlets to which we have recycling waste. ordinarily sent materials are no longer available to us, which turned The process starts with Mid the demand and supply curve on its head practically overnight,” says America’s Waste Audit Survey, Pirkle. “It is for that reason we need to educate our suppliers even which typically takes around ten more on how to increase the value of their waste.” mid america paper Recycling is offering a minutes. In terms of cost, “paper is a commodity tied to an index, so the value free waste audit survey. Functioning as a recycling of the paper will be known up front,” says Pirkle. “The variables are health scorecard, the survey helps MAPR determine how a customer freight costs and processing costs (if needed). If a newspaper firm has handles waste materials, and what’s working and what’s not. a baler, we will work to ship their baled waste material directly to a After taking the survey, the customer gets a free report and plan tai- paper mill. If they have loose materials, we will work with them to po- lored to upgrade recycling processes and boost revenue growth, the sition the material in the best way to market it directly to a mill. If this Mid America says. isn’t possible, we’ll bring the material to a processing facility where it “The newspaper industry is one example that ships numerous tons can be segregated and baled.” of product each year,” says Paul Pirkle, president of Mid America. “We Mid America was founded in 1926 and co-owners Don Gaines and work closely with these operators and all companies that recycle waste Tom Surdyk represent the third generation of family ownership. A paper to create a continuous improvement process that helps them fourth generation also works in the business. identify where waste is generated, establish key collection procedures, To take Mid America’s Waste Audit Survey, go to www.surveymon- and set objectives that will continually improve their waste stream’s key.com/r/MAPRAudit. p revenue contribution to the business.”

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Study links entertainment, news subscriptions a study conducted by researchers at Univer- The objective of the study was to understand Subscribers report setting a budget of about $600 sity of Minnesota’s Hubbard journalism school in consumers’ willingness to pay and motivations per year for media subscriptions, but they actually cooperation with the News Media Alliance and for subscribing to news, entertainment media and spend closer to $700 per year ($58 per month). the Star Tribune uncovered new drivers of digital sports content. Specifically, the researchers want- In terms of perceived value of different types of news media subscriptions that provide news pub- ed to know how newspaper subscription costs fit subscriptions, consumers are willing to pay more lishers keys to growing subscription revenue, the in to consumers’ overall subscription budget. The for sports content and streaming music subscrip- organizations say. survey was conducted with Minnesota residents tions. The study, which surveyed consumers in Min- between April 24 and June 4, 2019, and received When it comes to motivators, timeliness — get- nesota, found that those who have entertainment just under 500 responses. The responses were ting the very latest updates — is the top motivator subscriptions (Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, etc.) are weighted to reflect the U.S. Census data for the for subscribing to news. more likely to buy a digital subscription to a news- state of Minnesota. The News Media Alliance hopes to repeat the paper, and there is a positive correlation between The study revealed that the average Minnesota study in other markets to understand regional and spending more on entertainment subscriptions and household has approximately four digital media national differences in spending, willingness to spending more on news media subscriptions. subscriptions, including 1.3 news subscriptions. pay and motivations to subscribe. p Forecast: U.S. local advertising to top $161 billion In its “U.S. Local Advertising Forecast 2020,” lion in 2020, or 41.5 percent of total local media these factors with the ongoing growth of mobile BIA Advisory Services predicts that total local ad- revenue, up from $59.3 billion in 2019. and social advertising and the emergence and vertising revenue in the U.S. will reach $161.3 The forecast sees $6.58 billion being spent in future significant advancement in over-the-top billion in 2020, up from $152.5 billion this year, local political advertising in 2020. (OTT) advertising, the revenue landscape for next reflecting a growth rate of 5.8 percent. “The expectation of an aggressive presidential year looks robust.” Traditional media revenue will generate 58.5 election next year, along with primaries and state- The report forecasts that $29.5 billion will be percent of total local advertising in 2020 at $94.4 wide races, indicate that political ad spending will spent on mobile in 2020, growing to $44.6 billion billion, growing with the addition of political be a serious driver of local ad revenue next year,” by 2024. Close to 40 percent of mobile spending spend from $93.2 billion in 2019, the forecast said Mark Fredrik, chief economist and SVP at will be tied to native social, the forecast says. p says. Online/digital revenue will reach $66.9 bil- Virginia-based BIA Advisory Services. “Combine ProImage develops innovative solutions that help publishers and printers reduce costs. Making Complex Publishing Simple

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News & Tech November/December 2019 u 21 www.newsandtech.com Geldermann: Drupa a must in times of change u News & Tech Staff Report economy, artificial intelligence, platform economy and connected consumers continuously and increasingly affect the shape of the in- dustry. Drupa monitors such developments and collaborates with industry partners as well as renown market researchers in order to identify the strategic approach and positioning for the show. Our goal is to provide a realistic as well as reliable vision for the industry.

N&T: Any educational or training opportunities? Geldermann: Our five special forums — drupa cube, drupa next age as well as three touchpoints (interactive forums focusing on the trend themes of packaging, additive manufacturing and textile applica- tions) offer an impressive knowledge transfer in different formats. The focus will be on innovation in the print universe and the wide range of application options for printed products across all indus- tries and spheres of life. Speakers come from the exhibitor side but also represent brand owners from other vertical markets, showing how intersectional thinking can result in innovation. Our innovation partner Michael Gale, a Wall Street bestselling author as well as in- ternational consultant, will guarantee support in thought leadership, providing insights that matter to our customers. Questions and issues such as: How to transform and recreate processes in your business, Drupa 2020 is happening June 16–26, 2020, at Messe Dusseldorf how to identify skills to upscale and how to prosper and re-design in Dusseldorf, Germany. Drupa is the world’s largest trade fair for the your business should be of great interest for nearly all our different printing and media industry. Global suppliers will exhibit products profiles of attendees on a global scale. and services that focus on the areas of print and media pre-press, In addition, our exhibitors offer top-class presentations, guided printing machines, binding, paper processing and print material. tours, and provide insights into industry technology trends; the of- News & Tech recently met with Sabine Geldermann, director of ferings will be impressive and of great value for all attendees. And, drupa and global head of print technologies to discuss what we can all our forums and education program are free of charge. That is our look forward to at drupa 2020. investment for the industry.

N&T: Is print still important and why? N&T: Why should a newspaper attend? Geldermann: Print certainly still has a significant standing as an in- Geldermann: International key players in the industry confirm that dustry even though commercial print has seen a huge consolida- they are explicitly aligning their technology innovation with the tion due to digital transformation within the past 10 years. However, drupa cycle. In a period of continuous change and transformation, print is continuously evolving and conquering new areas of applica- drupa will be a must-attend event as the world's largest trade show tions. The new printing world is emerging, driven by mega trends no for printing technologies. The show provides orientation, valuable one can escape, like changing demographics and the new climate impetus for sustainable business models and last but not least offers landscape. In addition, the industry is impacted by a phenomenal best conditions for networking and excellent new business oppor- technological acceleration and transformation — especially inkjet tunities. technologies and applications that have already had and are still For publishers, the aim is to understand the innovative power of having a strong impact on our industry and drive it significantly. In- printing and the diverse applications for print products and to draw creasing automation and specialization — the concept of industry conclusions and inspiration for their own business, which should be 4.0 — technological change and closer geographical and industrial of huge relevance for every publishing house. In the course of the connection are only a few buzzwords that describe the on-going digital transformation, publishers should keep an eye on the technol- challenges and tremendous opportunities in our market. ogy behind the ideas in order to collect creative impulses and stay up to date. N&T: What new technologies will be found at this year’s drupa? With its 1,800 exhibitors from approximately 50 nations, drupa Geldermann: Drupa is broadening its reach in the graphic indus- underscores its unique position as the most relevant and important try, especially into packaging production, industrial and functional platform for the global print industry. In short, a premium event that printing, post-press and finishing, large format and multi-sensory ac- is about educating, engaging and entertaining in a fascinating and tivation as well as textile printing. All these segments and markets are inspiring atmosphere. going through the same transformation and definitely offer a growth www.drupa.com. p potential in the near future. Moreover, megatrends such as circular

22 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com News Hub Media adds AI4Images.com to lineup u News & Tech Staff Report

News Hub Media has launched AI4Images.com, pany’s website. There is no limit on image resolu- a platform that enhances images automatically. tions, color spaces or sizes — just what a user’s The AI4Images name refers to Artificial Intelli- browser and bandwidth can handle. gence for Image Enhancement. The platform’s base price is $9.99 a month, the The platform is powered by the same automat- site says. ed image enhancement engine used by publish- AI4Images.com is built to support high-volume ers including Popular Science, USA Today and image processing for publishers as well as jobs for Organizacion Editorial Mexicana (OEM), NHM the entrepreneur who’s not a designer or photog- says. The AI4Images.com approach to image op- rapher but who needs quality images, said a news timization combines cloud-based image process- release from News Hub Media. ing with predictive enhancement algorithms, the “AI4Images.com will function as an integral ser- company says. vice for businesses and publishers to boost brand The technology uses advanced image analysis and product awareness and advertising sales,” developed over several years and creates intelli- said the release. gent masks to enable automated toning and cor- “Image quality is a key ingredient in creat- rection on different areas of each image. ing unique and engaging mobile, web and print For advanced users, the platform provides tools content,” says Richard Laframboise, president of for manual verification and fine tuning. The sys- Michigan-based NHM. tem can process as many files as needed at the News Hub Media’s other products include digi- same time. tal asset management solution Ark, prepress and AI4Images.com supports TIFF, JPEG, PSD, RAW, production management system WebImposer and A screen capture from AI4Images.com, News PNG, EPS and PDF. It supports 8-bit and high-end Hub Media’s image enhancing platform. pre-media services management system GoMe- 16-bit per channel formats, according to the com- diaHub. p

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 23 www.newsandtech.com

Berlin — Attendees and vendors gathered Oct. 8–9 for the annual IFRA World Publish- ing Expo at the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds. IFRA Expo is now part of Berlin Publishing Days. IFRA Expo will not meet in 2020 due to the global printing exhibition drupa, but will Off the Record resume October 13–14, 2021. p

Christoph Muller, board member, Koenig & Bauer Digital & Webfed, Kerstin Wolz, marketing/corpo- Eric van Kessel, commercial director, GWS printing systems. rate communication, and Gunter Noll, Koenig & Bauer Digital & Webfed.

Itay Seker, European project manager, and John Ialacci, president, New ProImage. Christoph Muller, board member, Koenig & Bauer Digital & Webfed and Sam Wagner, presi- dent, Web Offset Services.

Allan Marshall, joint principal, iMedia Business Advisory. Erwin van Rossem, director of global sales and marketing, Damiam Staedeli, head of printing, ABB Switzerland. QIPC-EAE Americas, and Menno Jansen, chairman, Q.I. Press Controls. Off the record continues on page 26

24 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com

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News & Tech November/December 2019 u 25 www.newsandtech.com

Off the record from page 24

Franz Kriechbaum, CEO, and Alwin Stadler, deputy vice president, manroland Goss Group, Stefan Steinle, area sales manager, print systems division, Kodak. international sales and service.

Michael Pavone, COO, AH Tensor International, and Ron Manfred Werfel, WAN-IFRA. Lucy Tozer, vice president of marketing, PageSuite. Ehrhardt, sales director, Americas, DCOS Automation.

Manfred Werfel has retired after 23 years at WAN-IFRA, a global newspaper trade association based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Werfel was a key member of WAN-IFRA’s management team since 1996. He was responsible for research, WAN-IFRA Reports, committees, consulting, training, print quality projects, events, innovation projects, World Press Trends, Congress, World Printers Forum and Expo. In 2012, he acted as interim CEO. His retirement came after the World Publishing Expo in Berlin in October 2019.

Sven Jansen, head of international sales department, Krause-Biagosch.

26 t November/December 2019 News & Tech classifieds www.newsandtech.com

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News & Tech November/December 2019 u 27 www.newsandtech.com Merged association America’s

Newspapers launched u by Marc Wilson Special to News & Tech

America’s Newspapers — the associa- Along with its new name and logo, America’s tion formed from the merger of the Inland Newspapers launched the website newspapers. ilson Press Association and Southern Newspaper org, and social media outreach on Facebook, Publishers Association — was ceremoni- LinkedIn and @NewspaperOrg on Twitter. ally launched Oct. 6 at its inaugural annual All current members of SNPA and Inland will

meeting in Chicago. become members of the new association. See W M arc P hotos: America’s Newspapers unites two of the a video from America's Newspapers at news- oldest press associations to form one of the papers.org. p industry’s largest advocates for newspapers and the many benefits to their communities, civil life, freedom of expression and democ- racy, according to the group. “Newspaper journalism provides a voice for the voice- less, challenges elected officials, shines a light on government, calls for change when change is needed, and exposes corruption and injustice,” said Chris Reen, the president and publisher of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, who will serve as the first president of America’s Newspapers. Dean Ridings has Bob Nutting, CEO, Ogden Newspapers (left), and Gregg Jones, executive vice president, Adams Publishing Group, offer con- Louise Phelps, CEO, KPC Media Group, and Murray Cohen, been selected CEO of the origination. gratulations to Chris Reen. president of the Delphos Herald.

Chris Reen, president of America's Newspapers, announces the Walter Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat- Joyce McCullough, president/publisher, Miller Group Media, Russ new organization’s name at the inaugural annual meeting in early Gazette, at the podium. Sprung, past president Inland Press Association and Jim Sprung, October at the JW Marriott Hotel in Chicago. general manager of The Villages Daily Sun.

Marc Wilson, chairman emeritus of TownNews, presents Joyce McCullough, president and publisher of Miller Group Media, with the Inland Press Association’s Ray Carlsen Distinguished Service Award Oct. 7 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Chicago, site of America Newspapers’ inaugural meeting. Named after the former Inland executive director who retired in 2009, the award’s criteria state that it is intended for “members who have distinguished themselves in service to the association and its affiliated foundation, who have been exemplary in service to their communities and their companies, and who deserve the recognition of their peers and colleagues.” McCullough was on the Inland association board and is currently on the Inland Press Foundation board. McCullough is most widely associated, along with Marc Wilson, as a champion of the Inland Fellows Program, pairing management-track newspaper employees with mentors from Inland papers with an aim towards cultivating a new and diverse generation of newspaper leaders.

28 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Join industry leaders at the Mega-Conference 2020 The premiere event for the newspaper and media industry

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u 29 www.newsandtech.com uVendor News Stuart Web gets press from imPRESSions Stuart Web has made another investment in their printing opera- The equipment was recently acquired by imPRESSions Worldwide tion and will be adding three 22” cut-off DGM 430 towers to their in a liquidation buyout from The Chronicle Printing Division (Cen- existing press. tralia, Washington). The towers were updated by imPRESSions with Stuart Web is a family-owned commercial printer with a facility motorized register, brush dampening and new Perretta ink fountains in Stuart, Florida, that provides full-service tabloid, newspaper and in order to match the existing equipment in Stuart. Additionally, im- booklet printing. The company has expanded consistently over the PRESSions Worldwide supplied new DCOS closed loop register and last few decades and after this installation is complete, their pressline density cameras that will be installed on four of the twelve towers. will have 12 towers and three folders. Installation is expected to be complete in January 2020. French print house works with QIPC-EAE La Nouvelle Republique du Centre Ouest will install a Performance from 1988 with three towers and one folder. Package at the print shop in Tours. QIPC-EAE will install QIPC's IDS-3D color control system, The Performance Package combines QIPC's measurement and equipped with Automatic Ink Mist Shield and dampening control. control systems with EAE's control systems. La Nouvelle Republique EAE's control systems will be extended to the Visa Creusot Loire, du Centre Ouest has been using EAE's systems for many years. The the Print PP system will be installed and there will be a PC retrofit, press consists of a Goss Uniliner from 2008 and Visa Creusot Loire including two new control consoles. AIM Media using My Team Scoop AIM Media Indiana will use My Team The Tribune (Seymour). Fans can follow spe- to our partner’s ease of data entry,” said Bud Scoop for their newly branded high school cific teams and players and get push noti- Hunt, vice president and group publisher of sports website hoosierprepsports.com, soft- fications and emails for score updates and AIM Media Indiana. ware development company Presteligence mentions in print. The site will mimic AIM Media Tex- has announced. “As we evolve and grow, we are constant- as's RGVSports.com, which has used the My Hoosier Prep Sports will serve high school ly developing and exploring new, dynamic Team Scoop platform since 2014. Similar to sports scores and stats for schools covered ways to deliver news and advertising. The RGV Sports, Hoosier Prep Sports will secure by The Republic (Columbus), Daily Journal site affords us the ability to provide real-time a site sponsor and have opportunities to sell (Franklin), Daily Reporter (Greenfield) and updates and reverse publish our stories due team and text sponsorships. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Toledo Blade to use SCS/Track After implementing Layout-8000 and SCS/ Services (SCS). The Post-Gazette, owned by a SCS customer for more than two decades, ClassPag in 2018, the Pittsburgh Post-Ga- Toledo-based media company Block Com- has decided to join its sister paper in mov- zette selected SCS/Track to bolster its pro- munications (BCI), went live with SCS/Track ing forward with SCS/Track. SCS is privately duction environment and replace its legacy in July of 2019. held by Richard and Martha Cichelli. system, according to Software Consulting Meantime, the BCI-owned Toledo Blade, Austria-based printer gets system from Muller Martini With the FlexLiner, its second newspaper inserting system from jacket pushed the operation to the limits. Since last January, the com- Muller Martini, Moser Holding, located in Innsbruck, Austria, is in a pany has been using a new FlexLiner with 12 stations to produce better position to finish various products, according to Muller Mar- regional newspapers with a run of around 330,000 copies. tini. The FlexLiner makes it possible to automatically add more inserts In addition to the Tiroler Tageszeitung, which is printed seven times to the weekly newspaper published each Wednesday than was previ- a week in runs of 100,000 to 120,000, the printing company used ously the case. to process weekly newspapers as well as products from commer- The sword opening also makes it possible to insert trimmed inserts cial customers using a single inserting system. The NewsLiner, which without a low folio lap. These high-quality inserts are a specialty of dates back to 2003 and has eight stations as well as a promo feeder, Moser Holding. Like the NewsLiner, which was retrofitted in 2013, did its best, but the preprinted local sections of the daily newspaper the new FlexLiner is equipped with an integrated card gluer that is as well as the numerous commercial inserts that were added to the regularly in use and allows for additional advertising opportunities.

30 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com

French printing house gets Commander from Koenig & Bauer French printing house L´Est Republicain is building a new press hall in mander. Houdemont, France, to accommodate a Commander press line from Koenig Dismantling of the Commander is to start at the beginning of the coming & Bauer. year, and commissioning in the new press hall is scheduled for the fourth The line will replace two Miller-Nohab presses. quarter of 2020. Koenig & Bauer will handle relocation of the press from Belgium to EBRA Group, the parent company of L´Est Republicain, prints up to 1.2 France. million copies daily at peak periods. The company concentrated production At the same time, an additional web lead is to be added to the Com- capacity to four printing plants in 2018. Iceland printing house upgrades Commander press One of the largest newspaper printing houses in Iceland, Landsprent, has Landsprent, with offices in Reykjavik, can be counted among the country’s decided to bring its Commander press from Koenig & Bauer into line with largest printing houses and is responsible for production of the Morgun- the state of the art. blaðið, the most popular subscription newspaper on the island, with a circu- The process began with successive overhauls of the reelstands. That stage lation of 30,000. The overall product portfolio includes another 14 daily and of the project was completed successfully earlier this year, and attention weekly newspapers and magazines, and the company also prints various has now turned to an electrical retrofit for the folders. Technical measures to advertising supplements. modernize the printing towers are set to follow in the coming years. QIPC expands to Newsquest Glasgow Now that an installation at the Newsquest printing site in Oxford has installed at a Glasgow site. reached the goals set out, the British media group, owned by Gannett, is K&B is supervising the project. A mRC-3D system (11 cameras) for cut-off investing again in measurement and control equipment from Netherlands- control and IDS-3D (12 cameras) for color and register control are being based Q.I. Press Controls. In conjunction with Koenig & Bauer, automatic installed on a K&B Colora press. cut-off and color-register and closed-loop color and damp control are being Swedish printer taps DCOS for retrofit For almost two decades, Boras Tidning Tryck- of BTT and regain ownership of the printing plant. factured in Wurzburg, BTT secured another print eri (BTT) has been a cornerstone in Bold Printing The deal will be concluded before the end of the contract requiring 80 pages and needed one ad- Group, one of the largest printing groups in the year. ditional web. The result was extending one four- Nordic countries. The printshop in Viared (west of With the new owner in place, BTT decided to high to a five-high. Boras) was established in 2002 following a joint put their plans into action and DCOS was award- The press automation was a solution that’s a venture between media groups Bold Printing and ed the contract to become the automation partner mix of KBA on-press automation and EAE´s sec- Gota Media. for the press automation. tion controller, control desks, planning and re- Gota Media is also the owner of the local A KBA Colora press at the site, installed in porting. The drive system is a Bosch Rexroth SY- newspaper Boras Tidning, which used to operate 2002, is unique in its design. It consists of three NAX system. In 2012 BTT placed the order with its own printshop in downtown Boras prior the four-high printing towers, one five-high and one DCOS to equip the press with its closed-loop joint venture. folder. The five-high was not part of the original inspection system, which included the replace- Gota Media decided to buy Bold Printing out press order, but at the time the press was manu- ment of the EAE ink-preset system. Manufacturers partner with imPRESSions Washington state-based imPRESSions Worldwide has partnered with DG press has appointed imPRESSions as their North American distributor three independent manufacturers to act as the exclusive agent for new print- for the Vision Printing Press. Other regions are worked by imPRESSions on ing press sales and service, the company says. Contiweb, DG press and a case-by-case basis. Goss Graphic Systems China (GGSC) have joined forces with imPRESSions Also, imPRESSions now represents Goss China for print solutions through- to represent their products throughout the Americas. out all of the Americas. Goss China offers press products under the new Contiweb, based in the Netherlands, specializes in web offset press solu- brand name Wisprint. tions and has engaged imPRESSions to market their flagship Thallo Packag- ing hybrid press in the Western U.S. and Canada. Other regions are worked by imPRESSions on a case-by-case basis. Half Moon Bay Review goes with Brainworks solution Half Moon Bay Review (Coastside News Group) has chosen to use Brain- corporation that covers the coastal area of San Mateo County, California. works’ Stratica Advertising & CRM solution, according to Brainworks. Half Moon Bay Review is currently locally owned with 13 employees and The Half Moon Bay Review is a community newspaper and public benefit five board members.

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 31 www.newsandtech.com

Koenig & Bauer handles retrofit at Calprint By way of an extensive electrical retrofit, the Spanish company Cal- In addition, two further towers were moved and integrated into the print has brought its two Comet presses from Koenig & Bauer into existing line. line with the state of the art. Newspaper titles printed by Calprint, with offices near Valladolid The company has invested significantly in press equipment and its in Spain, include dailies El Mundo, El Norte de Castilla, Gaceta de plant building over the past years. This most recent project included Salamanca and Diario de Leon. upgrades to the six reelstands, two folders and the control system. Great West Newspapers chooses Brainworks Stratica Great West Newspapers has chosen Brainworks Software’s new Great West Newspapers is a Canadian community newspaper Advertising & CRM solution, Stratica. The 75-seat commitment for publishing company headquartered in St. Albert, Alberta. Great West Stratica includes display, digital, workflow module, extensive report- and its three subsidiaries, Rocky View Publishing, Mountain View ing, classified, pre-prints, commercial print, pagination, AR and in- Publishing and Alberta Business Research, publish 20 titles, mostly tegrated CRM. in Alberta. Adams Publishing’s TN/NC/VA group goes with SCS/Track APG Media’s TN/NC/VA group has selected SCS/Track to mod- centric workflow at APG’s Greeneville and Mt. Airy offices, and will ernize its ad building services, according to a news release from further expand Mt. Airy’s capabilities as this region’s centralized ad SCS. This APG (Adams Publishing Group) region is made up of 20 production hub. newspapers, including The Daily Times (Maryville, Tennessee), The “For this project, we needed to provide the functionality for our Greeneville Sun (Tennessee) and The Mt. Airy News (North Caro- ad builders to build ads coming from three disparate ad order entry lina). systems,” said David Clark, director of IT at APG East. SCS/Track will replace a production environment featuring many APG TN/NC/VA will be in full production with SCS/Track this manual steps, various disjointed advertising systems and a paper- month.

32 t November/December 2019 News & Tech classifieds www.newsandtech.com

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uIndustry Updates News You May Have Missed ...... 38–40 Mergers & Acquisition...... 43–44 Industry People...... 48–49 Magazine News...... 46–47 ING photo snapshot...... 41–42

uVendor Insight EAE ...... 54 Flint Group ...... 45 Q.I. Press Controls ...... 55 Newspaper Solutions, LLC ...... 58

uFactorium...... 51

uKevin Slimp...... 50

uMarketing Partners PageSuite...... 52 PressReader...... 53

uSpecial Thank You to Vendors...... 56–57

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 37 News You May Have Missed

GateHouse buys Gannett for the first time in the company’s history, The New York Times GateHouse parent New Media Investment Group has completed reports. Digital-only subscriptions grew nearly 50 percent from its $1.2 billion cash-and-stock buy of Gannett, the companies an- the same period a year earlier. nounced Nov. 19. The combined company has adopted the name McClatchy reported a net loss of $304.7 million during the Gannett Co., Inc., and trades on the New York Stock Exchange quarter and said that the IRS won’t give the company a waiver under the ticker GCI. that would have allowed it to avoid making minimum contribu- The combined company is the largest local news organization tions to its pension plan, The New York Times reported. A $124 in the U.S. with 260 daily newspapers plus USA Today. In the U.K., million contribution due in 2020 “creates a significant liquidity its Newsquest division has more than 150 local media brands challenge,” McClatchy said in its quarterly report. and a network of websites. Twenty-five percent of its revenue is driven by digital products sold across company brands, which Facebook News launches; some publishers include ThriveHive, ReachLocal, Wordstream and sweetIQ. The company also owns and operates the largest high school athlete paid, others not recognition program in the U.S. and is the second-largest pro- Facebook is testing Facebook News with a subset of people in the ducer of endurance events in North America. U.S. The service provides stories from hundreds of news organi- The merged operation is headquartered in Mclean, Virginia, zations. Some news organizations have deals with Facebook to where Gannett has been based. be paid for their content, people in the know on the plan say, The Gannett is externally managed and advised by an affiliate of Washington Post reports. Fortress Investment Group, a global investment management Among those to be paid are Dow Jones and Bloomberg. Among firm. This management agreement will be sunset at the end of those who don’t have deals are The Associated Press and Reuters, 2021 as a condition of the merger. according to the Financial Times. “Our powerful network of brands and capabilities position us The content will be curated by a combination of a human team well to ensure and preserve the future of local journalism,” read a and computer algorithms. Gannett statement on the merger. Organizations that are participating include The Washing- Not all reactions were so sanguine. ton Post, Business Insider, BuzzFeed News and numerous local “The Gannett/GateHouse merger sends a dismal signal about sources, the Post said. The New York Times will probably be on the future of local news,” read a headline on a piece by Michael board, the Post said, but the paper’s deal is not yet done. Hiltzik, business columnist at the LA Times. During the initial test, Facebook will showcase local original “The deal is bad for journalists, it’s bad for readers and it’s reporting by surfacing local publications from the largest metro bad for the future of local journalism,” said NewsGuild-CWA areas across the country, beginning with New York, Los Angeles, President Bernie Lunzer in a statement from the union, which Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington represents employees at numerous of the company’s newsrooms. D.C., Miami, Atlanta and Boston, Facebook said in its post an- “Local papers will likely vanish, jobs will be slashed, and report- nouncing the news tab launch. ing will suffer.” In the coming months, the social media giant will include local news from Today In, Facebook’s local news and community in- formation tab, which recently expanded to over 6,000 U.S. towns McClatchy to cut Saturday print, reports loss and cities. McClatchy intends to drop Saturday print in all its markets in “We are concerned that anything less than a fully comprehen- 2020, its CEO said. The chain will continue to publish digitally on sive solution could put some publishers that are already strug- Saturdays. gling at a distinct disadvantage,” wrote News Media Alliance CEO Craig Forman announced the change during a call with President and CEO David Chavern about the launch. “So, while investors on third-quarter earnings. it’s a good start, currently it is far from a comprehensive solu- The chain, which has more than 30 publications in 14 states, tion.” has already made the switch in some markets. “This encouraging growth in digital subscribers came as we also expanded our digital Saturday rollout to include conversions Amazon launches News app or announcements to convert 12 of our markets to digital-only Amazon has launched its News app on Fire TV, the company editions on Saturdays,” said Forman. “We are seeing wide accep- announced Oct. 22. tance of digital Saturdays among our subscribers in the markets The aggregating app will appear on Fire TV home screens titled where the change has been implemented and/or announced, and “News.” No download or subscription is required to use the fea- in those markets where implementation has occurred we are see- ture, as it’s free and supported by ads. ing an accelerated conversion to our digital products.” Users can watch news clips and live feeds from providers such Circulation revenue in the third quarter surpassed ad revenue as CBS News, Bloomberg, HuffPost, Yahoo, Reuters, Sports Il-

38 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com News You May Have Missed

lustrated, Entertainment Weekly and others. When users want USA Today retools website to watch the news, they can say, “Alexa, play the news,” and Alexa USA Today has unveiled upgrades and a new design of usatoday. will automatically open the app and play content. Users can cus- com that include new features, a simplified design and competi- tomize their news experience with the app. tive page speed, according to the publication. The News app will be automatically downloaded to Fire TV USA Today’s product design team studied a year’s worth of devices, and users should see it on their home screen in the ‘Your engagement and search trends to optimize how content is Apps and Channels’ row. In addition to the News app, there is displayed. The update introduces “flags” that highlight trending also a dedicated News row on the Fire TV homescreen. content, a new display for franchises such as Humankind and The app will be available to Fire TV customers in the U.S. Sports Pulse, as well as an improved site search, USA Today said. The enhancements also represent an opportunity for a richer New York Times advertising declines advertiser experience and greater performance, the paper says. Advertising revenues for the New York Times Company fell 6.7 Increased page speed and personalization features will com- percent over all in the third quarter of 2019, the company an- bine to drive deeper user engagement and higher ad viewability, nounced. Digital ad revenue dropped 5.4 percent, while print leading to superior campaign results, USA Today says. The site’s advertising revenue dropped 7.9 percent. new features offer advertisers a more “ownable” experience, with Meanwhile, the publisher added 273,000 new online subscrib- custom templates to prominently feature their brand. ers in the quarter, for a total of four million digital readers, ac- Across platforms — desktop and mobile web, mobile apps, and cording to the company. soon, newsletters — a new yellow label serves as a “virtual high- The drop in print advertising was not unusual, said a story in lighter” to brightly distinguish opinion pieces from USA Today. the paper on the quarterly results. The drop in digital ads was reporting. more surprising, the Times said. The changes come as GateHouse parent New Media Invest- “Like other publishers, we’re seeing continued turbulence in ment Group undertakes its purchase of Gannett. the digital advertising space,” said Mark Thompson, New York Times Co. president and chief executive officer on the third Atlanta next stop for Community Impact quarter earnings statement. “While digital advertising performed slightly better in Q3 than we had originally forecasted, we expect Newspaper a fairly challenging fourth quarter, largely due to comparisons to Community Impact Newspaper is launching into the Atlanta a very successful Q4 of 2018. We remain confident in our strategy, area, debuting in early 2020. which has a particular focus now on major advertising relation- A new team has been established to bring hyperlocal journal- ships like the recently announced multi-year deal with Verizon, ism coverage to the sixth metropolitan area for Community one of the largest commercial agreements in our history, and on Impact Newspaper, joining Austin, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix and new advertising opportunities like podcasting, where we are see- Nashville. ing spectacular growth.” Texas-based Community Impact Newspaper currently has 33 hyperlocal editions around the country and is delivered to more than 2.7 million addresses. Salt Lake Tribune becomes a nonprofit Allison Altobelli, a former Atlanta Journal-Constitution direc- The Salt Lake Tribune has become a nonprofit, the paper has announced. tor of sales and product strategy, was named publisher during an The IRS approved the nonprofit status in a late October letter, annual companywide conference held Oct. 24-25. declaring The Tribune a 501(c)(3) public charity. The publication can now accept tax-deductible donations. The push to become a nonprofit was driven by Tribune owner Adobe, NYT, Twitter partner on content au- Paul Huntsman, the paper says. Huntsman, who also serves as thenticity publisher, is relinquishing his sole ownership in the move. At the Adobe MAX conference, Adobe announced the Content “The current business model for local newspapers is broken Authenticity Initiative, along with The New York Times Company and beyond repair,” Huntsman told the paper. “We needed to find and Twitter. The initiative is aimed at developing an industry a way to sustain this vital community institution well beyond my standard for digital content attribution, according to a press ownership, and nonprofit status will help us do that. This is truly release from the companies. excellent news for all Utah residents and for local news organiza- “With the proliferation of digital content, people want to know tions across the country.” the content they’re seeing is authentic,” said Dana Rao, executive The Tribune will pair donations with revenue from advertising vice president and general counsel, Adobe. “While this is a formi- and the Utah Journalism Foundation, which is establishing an dable challenge, we are thrilled to be championing the adoption endowment to fund independent journalism in Utah. of an industry-wide content attribution system, along with The

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 39 News You May Have Missed

New York Times Company and Twitter. It is critical for technol- ness Journal reported. The change started Oct. 15. ogy and media companies to come together now in order to Kroger has been carrying the publications for two decades. empower consumers to better evaluate and understand content “We are removing the publication racks from our stores online.” because more publications continue to shift to digital formats, Adobe is developing an opt-in system that will allow creators resulting in less customers using the products,” a Kroger rep told and publishers to securely attach attribution data to content they the Memphis Business Journal. choose to share. Adobe showed a prototype of its content attribu- Local publishers were working with distributor DistribuTech to tion tech embedded in Photoshop at Adobe MAX, Nov. 2-6 in Los get the publications in Kroger stores. The Association of Alterna- Angeles. tive News Media is pushing back against the decision with its Adobe, The New York Times Company and Twitter plan to fur- “Don’t Lose Local News” campaign. The group is encouraging ther unroll the initiative at a future summit with other tech and people to call and voice their unhappiness with the move. media companies. Meanwhile, Press Gazette reported that Aldi planned to stop selling papers in all its UK stores as of Sept. 30. Greenwich Journal and Salem Press ceases The move stems from a spat with distributor Fore UK, accord- ing to betterretailing.com. publication, may have new owner The Greenwich Journal and Salem Press (New York) ceased to WaPo starts section covering video games, publish following the death of owner Craig Phalen, the Times Union reported. esports Phalen died at age 44 on Oct. 21, the paper reported. Phalen The Washington Post has created Launcher, a new section from and his wife Meghan bought the paper in 2014. “On Monday, the sports department of the Post devoted to covering video October 21, my husband passed away suddenly,” Meghan Phalen gaming and esports. wrote in the last edition. “He was young, too young, but his big Debuting Oct. 15, Launcher features coverage and analysis heart simply gave out. My heart feels like it nearly gave out as of the people, companies, teams and trends that make up this well, and now I am left to face the future alone.” rapidly growing industry. “Combining deep familiarity with “We have financially supported the paper for years,” Meghan the video gaming world and the Post’s journalistic excellence, Phalen wrote. Launcher will offer accountability reporting, cultural exploration, The paper launched as The Journal Press in 1842. artistic criticism and instructive guides,” according to the Post. “We're hoping to find someone to take it over,” said daughter Launcher will be on the Post’s website, as a subsection of Cait Johnson. The paper's Facebook page said Nov. 9 that the sports, as well as at Launcher.gg. paper would announce new owners. Social media surpassing print advertising Kentucky Standard drops Friday edition Social media advertising will see a 20 percent jump in ad spend- The Kentucky Standard (Bardstown) was to cease publishing its ing in 2019, reports The Drum, a marketing website in Europe. Friday edition beginning in November, the paper announced. This will mean social media is surpassing print ad spending for The paper planned to go to twice weekly after the production the first time, according to Zenith Media’s ad expenditure fore- of its last Friday edition on Nov. 1. Going forward, the paper will casts. Spending on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram print on Wednesdays and Saturdays. will grow by 20 percent in 2019 to reach $84 billion, while com- “This is a business decision driven by one factor — advertis- bined newspapers and magazine expenditure will fall 6 percent ing,” said Scott Moore, publisher of The Standard. Moore said the to $69 billion. Friday edition has been the weakest in terms of advertising for Social (13 percent of spend) is behind TV (29 percent) and paid some years. search (17 percent), which went over $100 billion for the first “The Standard is a solid newspaper financially, but we face the time, the Drum reports. same challenges that the industry as a whole is dealing with,” “Since it began in the mid-1990s, internet advertising has prin- Moore said. cipally risen at the expense of print," said the Zenith report. "Over Landmark Community Newspapers bought The Standard from the last ten years, internet advertising has risen from 12% of total Scripps in 1987. global spend (in 2008) to 44% (in 2018). Meanwhile, newspapers’ share of global spend has fallen from 25% to 8%, while magazines’ Kroger drops free publications have fallen from 12% to 4.5%.” Kroger, America’s largest grocery chain, will no longer distribute free newspapers and magazines in its stores, the Memphis Busi-

40 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com ING PHOTO SNAPSHOT

International Newspaper Group Snapshot It’s not a tradeshow; there are no booths to visit. Instead, it’s a networking conference de- signed to provide resources and practices to empower operations execs to successfully CHICAGO — Newspaper print production, logistics and operations executives recently shape the print landscape of the future, he said. gathered in Chicago for the annual International Newspaper Group (ING) 2019 Leadership Special guest Keni Thomas, author, musician and decorated former Army Ranger spoke Networking Summit. about leadership and redefining our understanding of what it means to lead the way. A “The ING event focused on best-in-class ideas,” said Steve Mattingly, ING program chair. performance of his early hit “Not Me” prompted a standing ovation.

Keni Thomas, author, musician, decorated former Army Ranger. Keynote speaker Jason Taylor, president, GateHouse Live & ING President Russ Newton, general manager, Bay Area Produc- New Media Investment Group Ventures. tion Services.

Mark Hall, regional director, Postmedia Network. Wayne Pelland, SVP/operations and commercial services, Lane Palmer, VP corporate accounts newspapers, Fujifilm. GateHouse Media.

Bruce Barna, VP sales & marketing, The Siebold Company. Mike Green, VP sales & service, North America, Flint Ink. Dennis Cheeseman, director of customer technical services, US Ink Corporation.

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 41 ING PHOTO SNAPSHOT

Paul Pirkle, president, Mid America Paper Recycling. Patrick Gallagher, executive account manager, Penske Truck Joe DeLuca, executive vice president & general manager, Leasing. Tampa BayTimes.

Kim Reddington, national director of diversity & strategic alliances, United Scrap Metal, and Joe Robert Fairey Sr., director energy procurement & waste diversion, Cox Enterprises and Kim Bowman, VP operations, Plain Dealer Publishing. Reddington, national director of diversity & strategic alliances, United Scrap Metal.

Todd Socia, SVP print products, The New York Times. Carlos Marroquin, production manager, Diarios Modernos. Tom Moran, Brandt Brothers.

42 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Mergers & Acquisitions

Arkansas County Broadcasters buys Tempo, a weekly free paper serving the Between the Lakes market area. In addition, Delta Online offers digital advertising Stuttgart Daily Leader solutions for a customer base that goes beyond the traditional Arkansas County Broadcasters has bought the Stuttgart Daily media and local market place, according to news release on the Leader (Arkansas). sale. The group operates under the East Arkansas Broadcasters The newly formed Delta Media Group is an affiliate company (EAB) umbrella. East Arkansas Broadcasters is a family-owned of the O’Rourke Media Group, which owns four local communi- media company that operates 51 radio signals in markets that ty newspapers and a marketing agency in northwest Vermont. include Jonesboro, Wynne and Stuttgart. EAB also operates the All Delta Publication employees were to be hired by the new EAB Ag Network and the EAB Sports Network, radio partner of company, the release said. Arkansas State University and Arkansas Tech University. The sale of the business was facilitated by media broker Julie “We are committed to strong local news, information and Bergman of Grimes, McGovern & Associates. community involvement in all of our markets,” said Bobby Caldwell, owner and president of EAB. “We have operated this group of local radio stations for Stuttgart and the surrounding Smithfield Times sold region since 1986 and look forward to continuing to provide The Smithfield Times (Virginia) has being sold. the area with entertainment, news, information and great Longtime Virginia newspaper publisher Steve Stewart, prin- advertising outlets for many years to come. The purchase of the cipal owner of newly formed Smithfield Newsmedia, bought Stuttgart Daily Leader further solidifies this commitment.” the paper from John and Anne Edwards, the paper reported. GateHouse had closed the paper Sept. 6. Stewart is a former publisher of the Suffolk News-Herald. The paper is now an affiliate of Alabama-based Boone Newspa- pers, which owns the News-Herald and The Tidewater News in LCP2 buys three Virginia newspapers Franklin, the Virginian-Pilot reports. The Post, The Coalfield Progress and The Dickenson Star Terms of the deal were not disclosed. (Virginia) have been sold to a Missouri-based newspaper firm, Stewart is majority owner of Smithfield Newsmedia and the LCP2, an affiliate of Lewis County Press, The Coalfield Progress paper’s publisher. Also invested are Boone Newspapers, Suffolk paper reported. News-Herald publisher John Carr, Tidewater News publisher The sale comes as American Hometown Publishing, which Tony Clark, and Carpenter Newsmedia. bought the papers in 2005, is shutting down, the paper re- ported. Other American Hometown Publishing properties in Tennessee, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Florida have been Ogden Newspapers buying Ohio papers sold or are being sold, the paper reported. Ogden Newspapers will buy The Courier of Findlay and the Re- LCP2 had previously bought another AHP paper, in Black- view Times of Fostoria (both in Ohio) from Findlay Publishing, well, Oklahoma. It also has 10 other papers, mainly in Missouri according to Jeffrey Potts of Cribb, Greene & Cope, who repre- but also in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Kentucky, The sents the Heminger family and Findlay Publishing. Coalfield Progress said. The sale was expected to close in November. Two jobs in Norton (Coalfield Progress) involving circulation Karl Heminger and his brother, Kurt, are the fourth genera- and business office functions have been lost, the paper said. tion of their family to operate the papers. Findlay Publishing The sale of the papers didn’t involve any company real estate. will continue to operate three radio stations in Findlay and Buildings in Norton and Clintwood have been for sale for sev- four in Columbus, Indiana. eral years, the paper reported. Ogden Newspapers already has a presence in the region, as the company has published the Advertiser-Tribune in Tiffin for more than a quarter-century. Earlier this year, the company Delta Media Group buys Wisconsin acquired the Sandusky Register and Norwalk Reflector from companies the Rau and White families. Mike Mathes, president and owner of Delta Publications and Delta Digital Strategies, has announced the sale of the two companies to the Delta Media Group, headed by Jim O’Rourke, a 25-year veteran of the newspaper industry, and Joe Mathes, a long-time member of the Delta Publications family. Delta Publications publishes the Tri-County News, serving Kiel, Chilton and New Holstein (Wisconsin) along with the

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 43 Mergers & Acquisitions

Blackshear Times sold to MC markets, local news and entertainment content, ownership of WGN America, a 31.3 percent ownership stake in Food Net- Gardner Publishing work, and equity holdings in several digital media businesses. MC Gardner Publishing Company has bought The Blackshear (Georgia) Times, the paper reported. The change happened with the July 3 issue, the paper said. Washington Post-published commuter Times Editor and Publisher Robert M. Williams Jr. and his paper closes wife, Cheryl, were the owners of the paper. Matt Gardner, Express, the free newspaper published weekdays by The Wash- formerly of Baxley, Georgia, and Folkston, Georgia, and his wife ington Post for Metro riders and other commuters, shut down Carrie, were planning to move to Blackshear, where Matt was last week. The paper has been publishing for 16 years. to become the latest editor and publisher in The Times’ 150- Managers of the paper cited its declining finances as the year history. reason it will quit, The Washington Post reported. The printed The paper covers Georgia’s Pierce County. paper had recently started losing money, the Post said. Matt Gardner represents a third generation of his family Express was meant to be an easy read for public-transit com- in the newspaper business, the paper said. He was made the muters each morning, particularly non-subscribers to the Post. managing editor of the Baxley-News Banner in 2009 and editor The paper was given out free each morning via old-fashioned of the Charlton County Herald in 2016. newspaper hawkers at Metro stations and through newspaper boxes. Waycross Journal-Herald closing Twenty journalists will be laid off due to the shutdown, the The Sept. 30 edition of the Waycross Journal-Herald (Georgia) Post reported. will be the final edition, the publisher said, according to The At its high point in 2007, the paper went to some 190,000 Brunswick News. people daily, said Dan Caccavaro, its executive editor. But its Publisher Roger Williams, whose family has owned the paper circulation has fallen in recent years, to some 130,000 copies a since his grandfather purchased it in 1916, said his siblings day. The drop was caused partly by declining Metro ridership, and other stockholders would have had to drain their personal Caccavaro told the Post. finances to keep the paper going, the Brunswick paper said. Williams said he informed employees Friday. “We told them what the situation was. I hate it, but we didn’t have any re- course,’’ Williams said, according to The Brunswick News. The family attempted to sell the newspaper and had two of- fers, but both collapsed.

Nexstar completes buy of Tribune Media Nexstar Media Group’s completed its $4.1 billion buy of Chi- cago-based Tribune Media last week, the Chicago Tribune reported. The purchase creates the country’s biggest local TV station ownership group and places WGN’s TV, radio and cable sta- tions under the Dallas firm’s umbrella. The FCC had approved the deal last Monday. The deal was valued at some $7.2 billion including the assuming of Tribune Media’s outstanding debt, according to Nexstar. The combination creates the nation’s largest pure-play local broadcast television and digital media company, with national coverage and reach to approximately 39 percent of U.S. televi- sion households (reflecting the FCC’s UHF discount, which lets media firms tabulate their UHF stations at half reach). Accord- ing to Nexstar, the company will benefit from increased opera- tional, geographic and economic diversity and scale as a result of Tribune Media’s diverse portfolio of media assets including owned or operated broadcast television stations in major U.S.

44 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Vendor insight

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News & Tech November/December 2019 u 45 Magazine News

American Media using Yappa tool Some management at Family Circle will be moved to different Yappa World has announced that American Media, publisher of ce- positions at other Meredith-owned entities. lebrity and entertainment journalism, has installed the Yappa tool Des Moines-based Meredith bought Family Circle from Gruner + onto two of their celebrity news websites, Star Magazine Online and Jahr USA in 2005. Life & Style Online. In 2018, Meredith bought Time Inc. and subsequently sold off Yappa allows users to leave “yaps,” audio and video comments, Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. The company has held onto instead of text comments. Since users are required to use their own women-focused brands like Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living voice and image, Yappa also helps publishers clean up the hate and Southern Living, CNN Business points out. Meredith recently spam often left on comments by trolls who hide behind fake avatars said it will launch a publication with TV hosts Drew and Jonathan and text, the company says. Scott of HGTV series "Property Brothers" early next year. Yappa, based in Marina Del Rey, California, automatically tran- scribes yaps through its patented technology and can deliver key Seven West selling titles to Bauer analytics to publishers, the company says. Users can be flagged for Australia’s Seven West Media has announced it has signed an agree- alleged profanity, pornography, bullying and hate speech by admins ment to sell Pacific Magazines to Bauer Media for $40 million ($27.4 and other users. million U.S.) American Media’s titles include Us Weekly, Star, OK!, In Touch, Titles include Marie Claire, Men's Health (Australian editions) and Life & Style, Closer, Men’s Journal, Muscle & Fitness, Powder, Snow- New Idea. boarder, Surfer, Bike, Mr. Olympia Contest, National Enquirer and The sale is expected to complete by the end of the calendar year, other celebrity and teen titles. American Media also manages nine- subject to regulatory approval. teen different digital sites including Usmagazine.com, OKmagazine. The proceeds of the sale will be used to pay down debt, improving com, RadarOnline.com and Intouchweekly.com. SWM’s balance sheet flexibility and simplifying the organization to focus on its content-led growth strategy, according to Seven West. Meredith sells Money to Ad Practitioners SWM and Bauer Media have also entered into commercial ar- Meredith has closed on the sale of the Money brand to Ad Practitio- rangements to mutually benefit both parties, including advertising ners, a portfolio of digital brands, including ConsumersAdvocate. spending commitments, the ongoing production of a Better Homes org. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. and Gardens television program, and sharing lifestyle content The sale includes the money.com website, which averages 4 mil- under a long-term agreement. In addition, SWM will receive $6.6 lion monthly unique visitors, according to comScore. Currently, million ($4.5 million U.S.) of advertising on Bauer Media assets over 14 employees work on money.com at Meredith's 225 Liberty Street three years. offices in New York. Under terms of an employee lease agreement between the parties, the 14 will remain Meredith employees until Luxury magazines going off shelves Jan. 31, 2020, at the latest. Two magazines focusing on luxury lifestyles will not be sold on “We are pleased to find a great home for the Money brand and shelves in 2020, according to Page Six. wish all parties great success under the new ownership," said LA Confidential and Capitol File (Washington) will go online and Meredith Chief Development Officer John Zieser. "We continue to will amount to national brands instead of fixating on one municipal make significant progress on our asset sales and expect to shortly area, Page Six says. They’ll retain their titles. announce additional transactions at attractive multiples.” Both titles were launched in the early to mid-2000s. Meredith acquired the Money brand as part of its January 2018 Page Six was informed that layoffs in the single digits occurred. acquisition of Time Inc. After a portfolio analysis, Meredith decided Publisher Modern Luxury purchased the titles in 2017 when it to sell non-core properties, the company says. Assets sold to date acquired Niche Media with its buy of GreenGale Publishing, which have included the Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated brands, in had scooped up Niche a few years previous. addition to some international holdings. Page Six said it was informed that the layoffs were the outcome of the last steps in merging Niche and Modern Luxury. Family Circle to cease publication December’s issue will be the last for Family Circle, CNN and others Hearst Magazines staffers unionizing reported. Hearst Magazines’ editorial, video, design, photo and social staff The magazine targeted at women goes back to the early 1930s. across 24 brands is moving to unionize with the Writers Guild of Meredith spokesperson Art Slusark told CNN Business that about America, East, AFL-CIO. The brands are Best Products, Bicycling, 70 staff members out of 6,000 working at the company were laid off Car and Driver, Cosmopolitan, Country Living, Delish, Elle, Elle De- last week. That number included some 25 employees from Family cor, Esquire, Good Housekeeping Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, House Circle. Beautiful, Marie Claire, Men’s Health, O The Oprah Magazine, Popu-

46 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Magazine News

lar Mechanics, Prevention, Road & Track, Runner’s World, Seven- Data Studio. Its first appearance is in Elle magazine. But the ads teen, Town & Country, Veranda, Woman’s Day and Women’s Health. may also show up in other Hearst publications, including Cosmo- A strong majority of the 500-member staff has signed union politan, Esquire, Food Network Magazine and Car & Driver, Ad- cards, according to the union. week reports. “Organizing has become common in our industry. In forming a The product will be able to be used in all categories but pharma- union, we’ll be joining our colleagues across the industry at Vox ceuticals, Adweek reports. Media, NY Magazine, Slate and countless others,” said a statement Skincare maker StriVectin is the first to try MagMatch, with an ad from the union organizing committee. that uses a reader’s name in the latest Elle edition, Adweek says. The WGAE will pursue voluntary recognition of the union, Lowell “Researching and shopping for skincare is a personal jour- Peterson, executive director of the union, told the New York Post. ney. We’re always looking for ways to make 1:1 connections with consumers … Harnessing the power to target and personalize the Atlantic introduces metered model insert took a great campaign concept to the next level,” said Alison Yeh, chief marketing officer at StriVectin, in a statement, according The Atlantic has launched a digital subscription service offering to Adweek. three new subscription plans and introducing a metered model on its website, the publication announced. Readers can now see five articles each month before being asked to choose an annual Ad revenue for magazine publishers falls subscription. The publication has created digital, print and digital, Ad revenue for magazine publishers was down in 2018, WWD and premium bundles. reports, citing numbers from eMarketer. In a letter to readers, Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote: “My Ad spending in print magazines declined by 18 percent year- dream is that the steps we take in this period—a difficult one for over-year, to $8.97 billion in 2018 from $10.94 billion in the previous our industry, as you no doubt know—will guarantee that our maga- year, according to eMarketer. The numbers include Sundays or zine will celebrate its bicentennial as a flourishing and indispens- inserts. able creator of the world’s best journalism.” Spending in digital verticals of magazines was up by 3.3 percent, The letter said readers would see more changes in the months to to $4.67 billion from $4.52 billion. Together, advertisers laid out 12 come, including a fresh look and new digital experiences. percent less with magazines and related content, down to $13.64 billion in 2018 from $15.47 billion in 2017, according to eMarketer. Chicago Tribune begins magazine delivery EMarketer predicts that magazine print and digital spend will be about equal by 2022. with Doorfront Direct The Chicago Tribune has launched local delivery of national Meredith, New York Times Co. to produce monthly magazines in a partnership with magazine and catalog delivery network Doorfront Direct. special edition magazines As an affiliate of Doorfront Direct, the Chicago Tribune is deliver- Meredith Corporation’s Special Interest Media Group and The New ing magazines to local readers with their home-delivery carrier York Times Company are introducing a series of Times-branded force, the same independent contractors who deliver the daily special edition publications that will be available at Meredith’s newspaper. Magazine Store, Amazon and on retail newsstands nationwide “Magazine delivery is a good fit for the Chicago distribution beginning July 26. operation as it adds more volume to our network,” said Ron Buss, The inaugural “Summer of ’69” issue will coincide with The New director of distribution for the Chicago Tribune. York Times coverage of the 50-year anniversary of that summer. As Chicago is the 49th market to join Doorfront Direct, which part of the collaboration, there are plans for five subsequent issues through its affiliates delivers more than 1.2 million magazines devoted to other historical events, significant milestones and cul- across the country each month, the company says. tural subjects, according to the Times. Doorfront Direct is a partnership of Gannett Publishing Services, “Combining the extraordinary, authoritative content from The Quad and ACI Last Mile Network. New York Times with our broad scale and retail expertise is an unbeatable combination in the marketplace,” said Doug Olson, Adweek: Hearst using online habits to target president, Meredith Magazines. “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with the Times on this first-ever collaboration that will expand our print ads premium content offerings for a new and existing passionate group Hearst Magazines is monitoring what readers go to online and of readers.” using that info to give those readers targeted print ads, Adweek The venture marks The New York Times’ first standalone maga- reported. zine on newsstands. The issues will each have a retail price of ap- The product is dubbed MagMatch and comes from the Hearst proximately $14.99.

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 47 Industry People

Tim Van Driessche has joined the imPRESSions World- Chris Blade has been named publisher of the Rochester wide sales team. Van Driessche, who is based in St. Paul, Post Bulletin (Minnesota). She had been interim publisher Minnesota, brings over 40 years of experience in the print- since June 1, when Fargo-based Forum Communications ing industry. acquired the Post Bulletin.

Capital Newspapers (Wisconsin) has named Aaron Walter V. McKinney, longtime publisher of the Hills- Holbrook regional editor, overseeing the news staff of the boro Argus (Oregon) newspaper, died Oct. 15 at age 92 Beaver Dam Daily Citizen, Portage Daily Register and Ba- from pancreatic cancer. McKinney's family ran the Hills- raboo News Republic. Holbrook previously was assistant boro Argus newspaper for three generations. The paper regional editor. printed its last issue in 2017.

PageSuite has hired Simon Fry, former head of product The Cheyenne Post (Wyoming) has announced the ap- at the U.K.’s Independent and Evening Standard, as its new pointment of two people to newsroom leadership roles. product director. Most recently Fry was responsible for de- Brucene Wilson has been named editor of The Cheyenne livering digital solutions at ESI Media and overseeing The Post and Dave Lerner has been named director of digital Independent’s transformation to becoming a digital-only media. publication. Fry will work with PageSuite’s management team, designers and developers to help shape the com- Chad Pauling has been named publisher of the Sioux pany’s product roadmap. City Journal and its associated publications. Pauling, who was previously the Journal's retail and digital advertising Bob Geiger has been named vice president of sales for director, had served as interim publisher since former PA Media Group, responsible for advertising and market- publisher Ron Peterson retired in June. ing operations at PennLive.com and The Patriot-News (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania). Most recently, Geiger was Steve Fisher is joining Adams Publishing Group as senior vice president of sales for The Philadelphia Inquirer. regional president of APG Media of Southern Minnesota. Before joining APG, Fisher spent 18 years at Dubuque, Kirk Davis, chief operating officer of New Media Invest- Iowa-based Woodward Communications, serving in adver- ments and CEO of GateHouse Media, intends to leave New tising and marketing management and as a publisher. He Media upon the close of the Gannett newspaper company was most recently group publisher of Woodward Commu- acquisition, which is now in works, according to Mike nity Media, which includes Woodward’s paid newspapers, Reed, New Media CEO. shoppers, niche publications, events and commercial printing operations. The New York Times announced that Dave Shaw, a leader of audio at Politico, is joining The Times as a senior Robert Lee Bradford II, owner of 17 newspapers in audio editor and the first Washington-based member of Minnesota and Wisconsin, has died at 80. Bradford, a one- the “Daily” podcast team. time reporter, believed weeklies were a vital link to keep- ing small towns connected. Brian Corcoran has been named publisher of The Post- Star (Glen Falls, New York), which Lee Enterprises owns. Richard “Dick” Hartnett, a former Florida Today cir- culation executive who helped launch USA Today in 1982, Sabine Geldermann, director of drupa, the trade fair died Sept. 21 in Sarasota. He was 71. for printing technologies, is the recipient of this year’s Girls Who Print Girlie Award. Girls Who Print is an online net- Stephanie Eubank, a veteran circulation manager, work of women in the print sector. has been named audience development director for The t Roanoke Times (Virginia). In her new role, Eubank will not

48 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Industry People

only lead circulation sales and service for The Roanoke Ray Eckenrode has assumed the role of publisher for Times, but also for The (Lynchburg) News & Advance, the the Breeze Newspapers (Cape Coral, Florida). Eckenrode Danville Register & Bee and the Martinsville Bulletin. BH replaces former publisher Scott Blonde, who now serves Media owns the four papers. as publisher for two Ogden Newspapers-owned daily pub- lications in Utah. Indiana Gazette (Pennsylvania) circulation manager Roque Carrasco was appointed in mid-September to a DeWayne Patterson has been named editor and pub- one-year term as president of the Inter-State Circulation lisher of the Jackson County Sentinel (Gainesboro, Tennes- Managers’ Association. see). Patterson replaces Brent Miller, who had served as publisher since December of last year. The Nevada Press Association has chosen newspaper veteran Noah Cusick to serve as president of the trade Sean Burke has been named president and publisher organization for news publications in the state. Cusick of the River Valley Newspaper Group. Burke will manage will hold the post for a year and follow Las Vegas Review- operations at the La Crosse Tribune, Winona Daily News, Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook in the job. Chippewa Herald (Wisconsin and Minnesota) and six ad- ditional publications. Burke succeeds Josh Trust, who is Edward VanHorn, executive director of SNPA and the no longer with the company. SNPA Foundation, has announced that he will retire at the end of 2019 after 43 years at SNPA. VanHorn's retirement Paul Ingrassia, an author and Pulitzer Prize-winning date was set more than a year ago, but it closely coincides reporter who placed readers in the boardrooms and with the consolidation of SNPA and the Inland Press Asso- executive suites of the nation’s automotive industry, has ciation. The two organizations merged into a new associa- died. He was 69. tion on Oct. 1. Carl Esposito, publisher of The Daily Times (Maryville/ AIM Media Midwest announced the retirement of Alcoa, Tennessee) for nine years and regional president for Thomas E. Hutson from his position as regional vice Adams Publishing Group for nearly three years, planned president and group publisher with responsibility for to retire effective Nov. 1, Adams Publishing Group an- a group of AIM media properties in western Ohio. In nounced. Paul W. Mauney, general manager of The conjunction with this retirement, the company also an- Greeneville Sun (Tennessee) and APG’s chief revenue of- nounced the appointment of Ronald A. Clausen as his ficer for the Tennessee/western North Carolina/southern successor. Virginia region, will succeed Esposito as regional president for Adams’ Tennessee/North Carolina/Virginia group. Flint Group announced the appointment of Ron Muawad as CFO. He will succeed James McCarthy, Bryan Sandmeier, general manager of The Daily Times who recently left the organization. In further organiza- (Maryville, Tennessee), will be promoted to publisher. tional news, Flint Group confirmed that Steve Dryden will expand on his current role, moving to take the newly Matthias Fischer has been named media contact for created position of COO – Flint Group Packaging, in addi- ppi Media for the Indian market. tion to his CEO duties for the commercial, packaging and sheetfed side of the business.

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 49 Contributor

Newspapers Get Serious It’s time we take a serious look toward the future

turns over the past ten or so years. it was a late day for both of us. That’s why I’m so excited about some He is the owner of a very suc- of the work I, as well as others, will be cessful company with several offices involved in over the coming months. around the world. His company is a by Kevin Slimp My schedule this fall is probably leader in its industry and I’ve been [email protected] the busiest of my career. A quick quite impressed as I’ve watched this glance tells me I’ll be in just about group of young executives dominate every corner of the United States, as their market so quickly. Like many of you reading this col- well as a lot of states in-between, to umn, I’ve been in the newspaper busi- What the young owner said to me work with groups who are serious ness a long time. I began delivering took me by surprise. about helping newspapers take steps daily papers for the Johnson City (Ten- toward a brighter future. Let me “You know,” he began, “you’ve got nessee) Press-Chronicle when I was share a little about a couple of these what we all want.” eight years old. It’s amazing my par- efforts. ents allowed me to deliver papers after I wasn’t quite sure where he was my brother, who was twelve-year-old The North Dakota Newspaper going, so I asked. at the time, was killed while walking Association Foundation is hosting He continued, “We have grown home from his paper route six years a gathering in Bismarck in October like crazy, we have employees around earlier. So, when I say newspapers are 2019 to gain a better understanding of the world, and we’re making a lot of in my blood, I mean that literally. how newspapers can play a more vital money.” role in the lives of potential readers in For more than 25 years, I’ve worked their mid 20s to late 30s. I was still lost. It sounded to me as a consultant with thousands of like he had what most people want newspapers in the U.S. and abroad. In On the Foundation’s “dime,” already. that time, I’ve seen a lot of changes, dozens of millennials from through- That’s when he landed the punch. and not just in the areas of technology out North Dakota will descend on “You do important work,” he told me, and production. Bismarck, spend an evening together, then spend the following day in focus “and you love what you do.” After a Some of the changes have been groups, which I will lead, all in an pause, he continued, “I would trade exciting. Working on the development effort to learn what we can do to bet- with you in a heartbeat.” of the PDF printing method in the ter meet the needs and interests of I could have shared some of the ‘90s has been one of the highlights of persons in this age group. difficulties of my work with him, but my career thus far. Traveling to major instead let his words sink in. universities and professional groups On December 6, I will be in Fort to discuss the upcoming digital revo- Worth, Texas, at the invitation of the “Well,” I told him, I’d trade my age lution in the late ‘90s and early 2000s Texas Center for Community Journal- for yours, so how about we trade jobs was another interesting time. ism, to meet with publishers to discuss and I get to be 28 and you be my age?” digital journalism. There is no ulte- Being invited to address groups We both laughed. rior motive. No one has anything to including the National Economic sell. The goal is simply to spend a day Let me leave you with this thought: Association, the National Press Club, together studying what is working, We do important work...vital work. and others about the effects of various what isn’t working, what should be left Don’t let anyone fool you or lead you elements on the newspaper industry, behind, and where community news- to think we don’t. as well as the effects of the newspaper papers should be considering as we industry on society in general, has I’m busier than I’ve ever been. I face the short- and long-term future. been a highlight of my career to date. often work 12 and 14 hour days. It’s 1 I’ve noted with great interest the a.m. as I write this column. I don’t do An issue that has concerned me work Al Cross is doing at The Univer- it because I’m getting rich. Trust me, over the past ten or so years has been sity of Kentucky Institute for Rural I’m not. I do what I do because our the lack of unbiased leadership in Journalism and Community Issues. work is so important, so vital. our industry to keep us on track in The work being done by the Institute accomplishing our core duties, while As fall comes to an end, I’ll share to deal with the issues of newspa- steering us away from negative influ- with you some of what we learn about per ownership and creation of new ences that could be detrimental to our millennials, the digital future, and community newspapers could bear industry’s future. anything else I learn in my travels significant fruit. that might be helpful. Whether out of a fear of upsetting A very successful young business powerful players in the industry or owner stopped by to see me at my of- just being too quick to take bad advice, fice last night around ten o’clock. Yes, newspaperacademy.com we’ve taken more than a few wrong

50 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Vendor Insight

Factorium www.factorium.com

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 51 Marketing partners

uPagesuite www.pagesuite.com

A Global Content Distribution Solution Across All Platforms

ToJoin learn PressReader more: today! www.pressreader.com [email protected] about.pressreader.com

52 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Marketing partners

uPressReader www.pressreader.com

A Global Content Distribution Solution Across All Platforms

ToJoin learn PressReader more: today! www.pressreader.com [email protected] about.pressreader.com

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 53 Vendor Insight

EAE www.eae.com

EAE Engineering Automation Electronics

We make print happen www.eae.com

About EAE Engineering Automation Electronics GmbH: The Ahrensburg-based company is active in graphic industries, automation solutions and automation technology. The company, founded in 1962 by Richard Ewert, is the leading supplier of controls, automation solutions and software for newspaper printers. EAE’s solutions are being used in all areas of a newspaper printing plant – from pre press to the mailroom. Worldwide more than 550 newspaper printing plants are using EAE’s control systems to produce more than 125 million newspapers each day.

For more information contact our local office 770 421 0774 or visit: www.eae.com

54 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Vendor Insight

Q.I. Press Controls www.qipc.com

I AM... ALL-IN-ONE

www.qipc.com

IDS-3D • Color control • Dampening control • Register control (incl. fan-out) • Fault detection

Your benefits: • Single camera system reduces the need of multiple camera’s. • Reproduction with absolute color stability, independent of job, printing company or press. • Automatic cleaning of the optics thanks to AIMS. • Works by measurements in the print without the use of marks. • Less labor-intensive thanks to automatic color and register corrections. • Less waste due to automatic color and register optimization while starting up and recognition of incorrectly positioned plates.

IDS-3D is a fully automatic image based color and register measuring and control system for web offset presses that also detects failures in print. A digital camera ensures that the measured data is processed in real-time and uses the digital file data as its reference. The ultimate result realized by IDS-3D is reproduction with absolute color and register stability in products independent of job, printing company or press at minimum waste and maximum efficiency.

For more information contact our local office 770 421 0774 or visit: www.qipc.com

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 55 Thank You to Vendors

A special thank you to the vendors that supported News & Tech in 2019. These vendors continue to innovate and contribute much to our industry.

ABB – Replace drives, new controls, conversion to shaft- Koenig & Bauer – Offering offset, sheetfed, digital, water- less or a complete press reconfiguration. less presses, parts and service. www.abb.com/printing www.us.koenig-bauer.com

AGFA – Offers advanced and complete print solutions for LW Graphics – Ferag conveyor parts and control up- the graphic communications industry. grades as well as new conveyor track. www.agfagraphics.us www.lwgraphics-systems.com

DCOS – One-source company with its innovating solu- manroland Goss Web Systems – Offers engineered solu- tions for drive and control system retrofits and closed-loop tions, service solutions and e-commerce solutions for the inspection systems. global print market www.dcos.com www.manrolandgoss.com

QIPC-EAE Americas – Develops and supplies automa- Morris Machine – Offers web and surface tensioners. tion solutions and automation technology for newspaper www.morrismachine.com printers. www.eae.com/us/home Muller Martini – Innovative print-finishing solutions for digital and offset printing. Flint Group – Inks, blankets, chemicals & more. www.mullermartiniusa.com www.flintgrp.com/en/segments/news-print-north-america/ The Network – Offers packaging equipment sales and GammerlerTech – Supplier of new and factory-refurbished service for newspaper and commercial printing industries. stackers, trimmers and conveying systems for newspapers www.thenetwork.net and commercial printers. www.gammerlertech.com Newspaper Solutions, LLC – Contact Doug Gibson for more information on compact hybrid web drying systems Joe Scott & Associates – Offering remanufactured mail- and RTP upgrades. room equipment. www.nsiparts.com www.jsamachinery.com Ignite – Former Olive Software's cloud-based e-publish- King Press – Provides auxiliary products, support for the ing platform delivers cross-media publishing capabilities, entire King product line, and manufactures a full line of digitally-enriched print to web, monetization programs replacement parts for King presses. and audience engagement solutions. Support for native www.kingpress.com app, mobile web, desktop and emerging platforms. www.ignitetech.com/olive-software/

56 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Thank You to Vendors

A special thank you to the vendors that supported News & Tech in 2019. These vendors continue to innovate and contribute much to our industry.

PageSuite – Offers PDF replica apps, in addition to ban- Robertson Press Machinery – Offers disc brake/air tension- ner advertising and subscription solutions. ing systems for Goss, Harris, King and most single-width www.pagesuite.com presses www.robertsonpress.com Dart/PCF – Offering delivery solutions that manage growth and improve service and verify delivery via mobile The Siebold Company (TSC) – Installations, refurbishment, devices. relocation, reconfiguration for double- and-single width www.trustDart.com presses. Siebold also represents Smith Pressroom Products and DGM parts & services. Perretta Graphics – Remote ink, closed loop register and www.siebold.com cutoff and motorization packages. www.perretta.com SLP – Offering printing plates, CtP, prepress and press- room support. Plumtree Company – Distributes and services copy coun- www.SLP.com ters including Denex CopySensor, the Baumer Electric Scatec and QTMS 3. The company also offers large digital SPH Pressroom Parts – Offers knives and spare parts for displays and totalizers. web presses. www.plumtreecompany.com www.sph-pressroom-parts.com

New ProImage America – Offering automated produc- Tensor International – Specializes in the development and tion workflow, press register correction without having to production of flexible single-width web offset press equip- modify the press, OnColor ECO ink optimization and image ment capable of printing 35,000 to 50,000 products per correction & color toning software. hour, with related folding equipment. www.new-proimage.com www.ustensor.com

Pressline Services – Offers a Flexible Urbanite Print- TownNews – Offers integrated digital publishing, content ing System, as well as web reductions, press overhauls & management and data management solutions. upgrades, installations & reconfigurations, level & align- www.townnews.com ments, audits, training, and replacement parts. US Ink – Dedicated to serving the newspaper and com- Q.I. Press Controls – Color register, color density, bar code mercial non-heat printing markets. identification, web-viewing and 100% inspection solutions. www.usink.com www.qipc.com/us/home Vision Data – Offering advertising, circulation, ad layout/ classified pagination, ad tracking and total web suite solu- tions. www.vdata.com

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 57 Vendor insight

uNsi www.NSiparts.com

Newspaper solutions, llc (Nsi) | www.Nsiparts.com Doug Gibson | [email protected] | 937 694-9370 Greg Dickerson | [email protected] | 206 612-2440 Dan Kemper | [email protected] | 847 420-3980 Kevin Bookheimer | [email protected] | 815 735-6903

Austin Equipment H:\Production Maintenance\Pkg Maint

SERVICE

LINE DESCRIPTION BRAND NAME / MODEL SERIAL NO. DATE COMMENTS COUNTER STACKERS 1 Stacker QUIPP 351 #9 1680-0 10/6/1998

FORKLIFTS / MAINT. LIFT 1 Fork Lift (Electric) #3 HYSTER C114V01644F 3/31/86 Battery Chargers / Fork Lifts

1 PF1 Industrial Batt. Charger S18-600B3 PF-1023V22816 (On Pallet) 480VAC / 6A 2 Power Volt 18E200T JH35 11354475 480VAC / 36Volt 3 IBC Flex200 BA2519F 10G6429M 480VAC / 15A

4 Mac Phazer Batt. Charger 18MP975T 5013300 480VAC / 10A

Clamp Lifts/ Warehouse

1 Mitsubishi #7 2FBC30 A2BC320137 12-31-97

Battery Chargers / Clamp Lifts

1 KW Battery Company (5) 18-1200F3B-22 K8570 480VAC/18A 2 Gould GFC18-1200T1 381CS08088 (On Pallet) 480VAC/15.5A 3 Hobart #(7) 865C3-18 388CS06351 480VAC/10.5A

PALLET JACKS

1 Jack (Electric) - 11 TOYOTA7HBW23 7HBW23-27646 10/6/06 2 Jack (Electric) - 12 TOYOTA7HBW23 7HBW23-27648 10/6/06 3 Jack (Electric) - 54 TOYOTA7HBW23 7HBW23-31554 12/19/07 4 Jack (Electric) - 58 TOYOTA7HBW23 7HBW23-31558 12/19/07 5 Jack (Electric) - 60 TOYOTA7HBW23 7HBW23-31560 12/19/07 6 Jack (Electric) Linde / EGU20-02 7101190430 7 Manual Jack

58 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Vendor insight

uNsi www.NSiparts.com

Newspaper solutions, llc (Nsi) | www.Nsiparts.com Doug Gibson | [email protected] | 937 694-9370 Greg Dickerson | [email protected] | 206 612-2440 Dan Kemper | [email protected] | 847 420-3980 Kevin Bookheimer | [email protected] | 815 735-6903

8 Manual Jack 9 Manual Jack 10 Manual Jack 11 Manual Jack 12 Manual Jack 13 Manual Jack

PALLET JACK CHARGERS 1 MAC Quantum 2200 01158240 12/31/84 480VAC / 24Volt 2 Gould GERR6-450-S1 E340508 12/31/84 480VAC / 4A 3 Patroit MAC PAC 1240 06119885 2006 120VAC 4 Patroit MAC PAC 1240 06119886 2006 120VAC 5 Patroit MAC PAC 1240 07301357 12/19/07 120VAC

LABELING EQUIPMENT 1 AccraPly Model 5203HS 2008 2 Image Printer Model 2000 2008

HOPPER LOADERS 1 Hopper Loaders GMA/AF 200 96.0200.22 #2 1996

SKID LEVELERS 1 Skid Leveler-17 M2425S67FG42E41M01 116691-02 6/2/98 Rol-Lift 2 Skid Leveler-7 M2425S67FG42E41M01 116691-06 6/2/98 Rol-Lift 3 Skid Leveler-9 M2425S67FG42E41M01 116691-08 6/2/98 Rol-Lift 4 Skid Leveler-10 M2425S67FG42E41M01 102210 6/2/98 Rol-Lift 5 Skid Leveler-13 M2425S67FG42E41 160952-02 9/25/00 Rol-Lift 6 Skid Leveler-18 M2425S67FG42E41 160952-04 9/25/00 Rol-Lift 7 Skid Leveler-20 M2425S67FG42E41 160952-06 9/25/00 Rol-Lift 8 Skid Leveler - 16 Parts only

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 59 Vendor insight

uNsi www.NSiparts.com

Newspaper solutions, llc (Nsi) | www.Nsiparts.com Doug Gibson | [email protected] | 937 694-9370 Greg Dickerson | [email protected] | 206 612-2440 Dan Kemper | [email protected] | 847 420-3980 Kevin Bookheimer | [email protected] | 815 735-6903

TABLE JOGGERS 1 Joggers SYNTRON / 2 Joggers SYNTRON / 3 Joggers SYNTRON / 4 Joggers SYNTRON / 5 Joggers SYNTRON / 6 Joggers SYNTRON / 7 Joggers SYNTRON / 8 Joggers SYNTRON / 9 Joggers SYNTRON / 10 Joggers SYNTRON /

FERAG CASSETTES Ferag 98 each

PRINT SHOP EQUIP 1 Offset Press, 2 color Multilith / 1862 2 Offset Press, 1 color Multilith / 1250 3 Offset Press, 2 color Multilith / 1250 4 Comb binding machine (manual) ibico AG HB24 5 Comb binding machine (electric) ibico AG EP21

KODAK NELA-CREO 1 Plate Loader 02953-01 & 02940-01 Two each 2 Plate Loader Cassettes Four each

NELA 1 Bender VCP-7411-02 BG707210 2 Bender VCP-7411-01 BG707205 3 Conveyors Various

GLUNZ & JENSEN 1 Pre-Bake Oven CPO 85 Three each

60 t November/December 2019 News & Tech www.newsandtech.com Vendor insight

uNsi www.NSiparts.com

Newspaper solutions, llc (Nsi) | www.Nsiparts.com Doug Gibson | [email protected] | 937 694-9370 Greg Dickerson | [email protected] | 206 612-2440 Dan Kemper | [email protected] | 847 420-3980 Kevin Bookheimer | [email protected] | 815 735-6903

2 Plate Processor Quartziii 85 Three each

AIR COMPRESSOR 1 1,000 cfm compressor Quincy QSI-1000

AIR DRYER 1 Air Dryer Quincy QFD 1650 2 Air Dryer Quincy QFD 1650 3 Air Dryer Quincy QPNC-500

PKG MAINT SHOP 1 Parts Washer BAC DM-32 2 15-1/2" drill press Craftsman (On a stand) 3 Hydraulic Press Dayton (3Z915) 4 Drill press Craftsman (Table mounted)

PRESS STITCHER 1 Inline stitcher Motterstitch Stitcher Model 103 KBA specific

SPARE MOTORS 3 HP, 3,400 RPM, 40 VDC motor, Type Dynamatic Adjusto Speed, Model Delivery bed motor for Harris 1 GSA MO-200076-0903 1.5 HP, 220/440 VAC, motor Frame Reuland, Model 8422-BX2754 Reel rotation motors 2 AEL-147 1.5 HP, 220/440 VAC, motor Frame Reuland, Model 8422-BX2755 Reel rotation motors 3 AEL-148 5 HP, 230/460 Vac, 1750 RPM, Frame Baldor Super E, Model VEM 3665T New in box 4 184 TC 5 HP, 230/460 Vac, 1750 RPM, Frame Baldor Super E, Model VEM 3665T Used 5 184 TC Gast Regenerative Blower, Model 1 HP, Used 6 R4310a-2; SPC 4265 75 HP, 230/460 VAC, 1770 RPM, Frame Baldor Type 4272M, # M2551T New 7 365T

News & Tech November/December 2019 u 61 Vendor insight

uNsi www.NSiparts.com

Newspaper solutions, llc (Nsi) | www.Nsiparts.com Doug Gibson | [email protected] | 937 694-9370 Greg Dickerson | [email protected] | 206 612-2440 Dan Kemper | [email protected] | 847 420-3980 Kevin Bookheimer | [email protected] | 815 735-6903

NetworkAIR FM Series Model M40M-EKA-ESU, 40 kw, dual cooling unit 1 APC CRAC1

24 head, double drop, upgraded software for double drop; new S/N: 96.2000.6, 5/17/96 1 GMA / SLS 2000 spare computer; with Qunicy vacuum pump

Waste conveyor w/ diverter and dual compactors; includes power Karl Schmidt Conveyor and control panel; secton 1 = 61' 5-5/8", Section 2 = 58' 4-1/8", Section 3 = 169' 6-3/16", Section 4 = 85' 1"

62 t November/December 2019 News & Tech