CALENDAR 2015 March 11-12 — Missouri Advertising Managers’ Association Meeting, Camden on the Lake, Lake Ozark 19 — NNA Leadership Summit, Arlington, Va. No. 1302 — 17 December, 2014 June 11 — Porter Fisher Golf Tournament, Lake Valley Golf Course in Camdenton 12 — MPA/MPS/MPF Board meetings (morning); Show-Me Press meeting (afternoon), Old Kinderhook 24-28 — ISWNE Conference, Columbia September 10-12 — 149th Annual MPA Convention, Columbia October 1-3 — 129th NNA Convention, St. Charles, Mo., Upcoming Includes a tribute to Webinars President Pub Aux Live - Harry Truman Newspaperbaton: Promoting Newspapers and Communities in words and photos. Thursday, January 8 Presenter Laura Nakoneczny, North Carolina Press Association Register at www.regonline.com/Newspaperbaton What’s Next for Classifi ed? Making 2015 a growth year Friday, January 9 Presenter Janet DeGeorge, Classifi ed Executive Making Digital Editions Really Work for Your Newspaper Thursday, January 15 For ordering information go to Presenter Jakob Fenger, www.mopress.com Mirabel Technologies Questions? Call Missouri Press Foundation Think Bigger than Native Advertising 573-449-4167 Thursday, January 29 Presenter Steve Gray, Morris Communications Register at onlinemediacampus.com Presented in partnership with: Missouri Press Association High-quality, low-cost web conferences that help media professionals develop new job skills without leaving their offi ces. Call: 573-449-4167 Registration forms for coming MPA activities can be found at mopress.com/current_forms.php. Missouri Press Association Bulletin, December 17, 2014, Page 2 Coming Soon! Gashouse Gang serial a home run Thanks to all the volunteer judges from the MPA, Colorado’s recent Better Serialized story set for late December release Newspaper Contest judging has been completed. The 2015 Reading Across Missouri Next up: The MPA will soon be Project, a serialized story on The recruiting judges for the Georgia Press Gashouse Gang, is gaining momentum. Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. The story is being written by “Lily’s Stay “tuned” for details. Story” author Carolyn Mueller, of St. Louis. Nick Hayes, the British illustrator who drew pictures for our 2014 story and Stay up-to-date created amazing images for the children’s book version, “Lily, A True Story of with Webinars Courage and the Joplin Tornado,” has Because Missouri Press promotes agreed to bring our new story to life with the programs of the following his art. organizations, they allow MPA Watch MPA News magazine and members to get their training mopress.com for details on the story, webinars and programs at reduced or member rates. Visit these sites to find which should be available in late out about the latest webinars offered December for use after Jan. 1, 2015. and/or to explore archived webinars: Last month, 43 Missouri newspapers -Inland Press Association: www. downloaded features from MPA’s Famous inlandpress.org/training/ Missouri Journalists series. We promoted the use of the series to kick of National -Local Media Association: www. Newspaper Week in early October, but localmedia.org. these stories about Missouri’s journalism Williams, Lucille Bluford, Mary Paxton pioneers can be used at any time. There Keeley and Walter Cronkite. -Online Media Campus: www. are 10 features in the series, including To access the features, visit mo-nie. onlinemediacampus.com. the four added this year about Walter com and use code: mojournalists. Request your Get your Missouri Blue Book! 2015 Supplies Limited! Order Today! The Missouri Press Foundation urges will refer to this book for generations to PRESS CARDS you and your newspaper to consider come. purchasing copies of the 2013-2014 Also, why not print out the order Missouri Official Manual (Blue Book) form and distribute the form to local and giving those copies to your local county officials? And, post the form in public libraries and schools. It also makes your office’s front window. a GREAT PERSONAL GIFT for the The Blue Book was out of print until Holidays! earlier this year, never to be published Purchasing two, three, even four again as ink-on-paper, until the Missouri copies of the Blue Book will help the Press Foundation stepped in and brought 2015 Foundation meet its sales goal of 2,500 it back as a hardcover book. copies by the end of December. Recently, With every purchase, you are helping one Missouri Press member newspaper to keep the Blue Book IN PRINT! bought 16 copies of the Blue Book to give to its local libraries and schools. Thank you for buying a Blue Book (or If someone on your staff The Blue Book represents a historic a few Blue Books). reference book on Missouri government. needs a 2015 press card, Library patrons and school students Sincerely, Missouri Press Foundation email the person’s name to Download Blue Book form online here: [email protected]. http://www.mopress.com/_lib/files/Missouri_Official_Manual_MPF_Order_11_4.pdf Need help with a newspaper issue? Check the links at mopress.com/reporterslinks.php. Missouri Press Association Bulletin, December 17, 2014, Page 3 Keys: transparency, documentation, named sources Fact-checking a sensitive story by Jane Elizabeth, American Press Institute workforce topic in Virginia. Luckily, enough Earlier this month, on the same day Rolling clean and addicted nurses spoke with us. We Missouri Press Association Stone magazine issued an apology for errors didn’t need the VNA. in a jarring story about campus rape, a small API: Can you describe how the fact Missouri Press Service newspaper in western Virginia published an checking was conducted for this series? 802 Locust St. investigative series with similar sensitivities. Ramsey: We had a multi-pronged Columbia, MO 65201-4888 The series told the stories of dozens of nurses approach. We generated a list of every factual (573) 449-4167; FAX (573) 874-5894 who stole and became addicted to their statement (not actual copy) from the main www.mopress.com patients’ drugs, threatening the lives and stories and sent it to state officials, who health of the patients and themselves, and used investigators and PIOs to verify the MPA PRESIDENT: Richard Gard, bringing shame and chaos to their families information... We also sampled a percentage Missouri Lawyers Media and employers. of our hand-built database and determined FIRST VICE PRESIDENT: Jim But in its transparency, The News Leader’s an error rate, which was really low. We... Robertson, Columbia Daily Tribune “Addicted Nurses” series was different: No made a Google spreadsheet for the team, SECOND VICE PRESIDENT: Dennis Warden, Gasconade County Republican, one in the story was anonymous, documents using it to log verification of each fact, the Owensville were provided, videos were recorded. And source, the person checking and a note when SECRETARY: Dennis Ellsworth, the staff’s fact checkers were named. a change was made to the draft. St. Joseph News-Press The story began a year earlier when the For personal stories, I did some TREASURER: Donna Bischoff, paper looked into the case of James Colus interviewing of the reporter’s sources that St. Louis Post-Dispatch Walker, a former local nurse addicted to I don’t normally do. For example, I spent MPA DIRECTORS: Mark Maassen, The Kansas City Star. cocaine. By the end of the year-long project, two hours in the living room of one nurse’s Joe Spaar, The Odessan the staff had tracked 2,366 nurses who had parents, checking background details... Also, Bill Miller Jr., Washington Missourian been cited for such violations. I showed some early confidential drafts Jeff Schrag, Springfield Daily Events Another sensitive story about a hidden of our main story to a nurse I trust, to get Carol Stark, The Joplin Globe crime. This one with transparency, fact expert reaction. Trevor Vernon, Eldon Advertiser checking, named sources. API: You made a point of highlighting James White, Benton County Enterprise, Warsaw William Ramsey is the local editor of the your fact checking... Why was the fact Darryl Wilkinson, North Missourian, 20,000-circulation newspaper and the lead checking different for this project? Gallatin editor on the “Addicted Nurses” project. For Ramsey: We were able to take our time. NNA REPRESENTATIVE: Brad Gentry, the American Press Institute’s Fact-Checking There was no rush to publish. And we Houston Herald Project, Ramsey explained how and why the needed to be an authority on this subject publication examined and changed its fact- to make statewide claims about the system. MPS PRESIDENT: Phil Conger, Bethany Republican-Clipper checking efforts to produce the series. We’re a small daily paper far from the state VICE PRESIDENT: Joe May, Mexico API: For the “Addicted Nurses” series, The capital. We’d lose credibility if we made a SEC-TREAS.: Kevin Jones, News Leader was able to publish interviews mistake on the subject-matter details. The St. Louis American with nurses who were addicted to drugs — nurses who shared their difficult personal MPS DIRECTORS: Vicki Russell, who even stole their patients’ drugs — and stories with us also deserved accuracy at a Columbia Daily Tribune; Jack Whitaker, use their real names. How were you able to different level than is possible when you’re Hannibal accomplish this? covering daily news... API: What is the return on investment STAFF Ramsey: In our small newsroom, we help each other. So reporter Patricia Borns gave for the labor-intensive fact checking of Doug Crews: Executive Director, [email protected] us some names from state records, and we all “Addicted Nurses”? Are you able to measure Mark Nienhueser: Ad Director, slowly contacted people through Facebook, fewer errors or increased credibility? [email protected] phone calls and door knocking. Our best Ramsey: We received little critical Bryan Jones: Editor, [email protected] feedback from readers and the state based Melody Bezenek: Missouri Press Foundation source was a nurse whom Borns slowly Director, [email protected] built a rapport with.