newsONTARIO COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION’S clipsAUGUST 2006 http://members.ocna.org VOL. 20, NO. 7 OCNA says farewell to Bill Laidlaw To OCNA Members: sponsorship funds. Board will now If you have any questions, The Board of Directors of After other begin the feel free to contact any member the Ontario Community regional associa- process to assess of the Board of Directors. Newspapers Association wish- tions withdrew member needs, Their contact information es to announce the departure of from the national both short- and can be found at http:// Executive Director Bill sales initiative, long-term, and members.ocna.org/AFS/Board Laidlaw, effective immediately. therefore leaving search for suit- _of_Directors_Staff/Board Bill was hired last August to national sales as able candidates Directory2006.pdf mainly manage the transition of an OCNA fixture, to continue to Ad*Reach to a national sales the Board has lead the associa- Sincerely, organization, with some atten- opted to re-focus tion. Mike Williscraft tion to lobbying government, its attention on the We wish Bill OCNA President adding Human Resource continued growth the best in the Services to the list of associa- of Ad*Reach business for our future and thank him for his tion programs, and to increase member newspapers. The efforts with OCNA. Cancer claims veteran community journalist By The Orangeville Citizen way with people and he knew how to sell Chapel, Orangeville on Saturday, July 8. ommunity journalism has lost advertising.” As expressions of sympathy, donations one of its giants, with the pass- At one point, Magna International’s to the Salvation Army were requested. A ing of Herb Crowther, 66 at the Frank Stronach joined with Herb. “At the tree will be planted in Herb’s memory in the end of June. A native of time he was thinking of starting his own Dods & McNair Memorial Forest at the Kirkland Lake, Crowther was chain of papers,” Rob recalls. “But then Island Lake Conservation Area, where a Cinvolved in Community Newspapers for came the recession and Stronach dropped dedication service will be held on Sunday, more than 40 years, having started with the out.” Sept. 10, at 2:30 p.m. Kirkland Lake Daily News when he was 24 Without the needed financial backing, and remaining at the helm as advertising Oakville Today folded, “and Dad had to manager for Orangeville-based Claridge start all over.” Community Newspapers Ltd. at the time of In 1990, he got a job with the then his death from cancer. Thomson-owned Orangeville Banner but His son Rob says that after spending parted company in 1991 when the chain’s about two years with the Kirkland Lake Toronto head office wanted him to fire an paper, then owned by the Thomson chain, employee and he felt such treatment was Crowther moved south to join the staff of a undeserved. Port Credit weekly, where he remained for At the time, the rival Orangeville several years before being appointed adver- Citizen was looking for a ‘national’ adver- tising manager of the Mississauga News. tising representative, and Herb was quick- From there he went to Milton, where he ly hired, spending the remainder of his spent 18 years as advertising manager and life competing with his former employer, publisher of the Canadian Champion, now part of the Metroland chain. which had become part of the Toronto Star’s Herb leaves his wife Jeannine (nee Metroland chain of community papers. Lauzon), sons Rob and Jamie (and wife Rob says it was in late 1987 that his Lisa) and daughter Angela. He also father decided to go out on his own, found- leaves behind grandchildren Carolyn, ing Oakville Today as a competitor with the Marlena, Alex, Austin, Travis and Metroland-owned Oakville Beaver. Victoria, and will also be sadly missed by Rob, who acted as circulation manager his brothers Ken, Bob, sister Debbie and for the fledgling weekly, says it was “hard to many other relatives and friends. compete with the large chain paper. But I A celebration of his life was held at feel we were doing well. Dad really had a the Dods & McNair Funeral Home & WHAT’S INSIDE: OCNA Employee Profile PAGE 3 HR Tidbits PAGE 4 Tip from Techie PAGE 6 2 OCNA’S NEWSCLIPS • AUGUST 2006 a word from OCNA... Looking for member feedback By Anne Lannan September. When you are looking for com- As we continue to develop new programs OCNA Member Services Manager panies to provide products and services to and services, as well as reviewing existing CNA strives to continually you, this resource guide will be the place to programming, we need your feedback to offer its members new and go! Fully searchable with all the bells and ensure OCNA continues to meet your needs value-added services and pro- whistles. and wants. grams to help your businesses Our Lunch and Learn Webinar series have Please take a few minutes to complete the be successful, develop the become a big hit with community newspa- annual OCNA Member Survey which will Oskills of your staff, and to help you produce pers right across the country, and members help us gauge the importance and satisfac- quality publications. are appreciative of the Conference Call pro- tion of our offering, as well as highlight the This past year we have increased our pres- gram where they are able to speak directly key issues impacting our member newspa- ence at Queen’s Park, both for provincial with key ministers and newsmakers about pers. The survey is available in a convenient government advertising purposes as well as timely news items. and user-friendly online format and should to have an influence in legislative matters. Community newspapers are writing a only take about ten minutes of your time. We now offer Human Resource functions as growing number of health and lifestyle arti- Reply by August 23, 2006 and be entered a component of Member Services in which cles directly relating to their communities. into a draw for a complimentary OCNA members have access to a human resource Editors have asked for assistance in this area Spring Convention full registration package professional for specific issues at your to learn of new issues and trends in the area (hotel accommodation excluded) for our newspaper fromcreating job descriptions to of health, and to develop fresh ideas in their April 2007 event. establishing performance management sys- approach to story choices. OCNA is orga- Thank you for your continued support of tems. nizing a day to cover Health and Lifestyle OCNA and for letting us serve you. Go to We are currently developing an online Reporting for Community Newspapers on http://www.ocna.org/members2006/ezs.cgi resource for publishers which will go live in November 8 in Mississauga. ?DATABASE=membersurvey06 Honouring Joanne Burghardt oanne Burghardt, editor-in-chief tion at her papers. She researched, recom- of Metroland Durham- mended and then oversaw a move to Northumberland Regions Media Macintosh OSX and a switch to all Adobe Group, was honoured with the applications, including InDesign for page Silver Quill Award. layout and InCopy for word processing. To JIt is presented by OCNA or CCNA to name but a few achievements, she's the newspaper owners or managers for 25 founding editor of four newspapers; she years of service to the industry. introduced digital photography to the Burghardt began her career as a co-op newsroom in 1995, making them one of the education student at Oshawa This Week in first newspapers in Canada to do so; and early 1981, before officially being hired on she designed the company’s first newspa- March 23, 1981. She now heads up the edi- per Web site. Over the years she's con- torial department of the division, oversee- ceived and introduced numerous special ing a staff of 34, spread across five differ- sections that have provided must-read con- ent offices and hundreds of kilometres, tent, along with new advertising opportuni- publishing more than 100 newspapers each ties for customers. These include the annu- month. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Ajax al Faces of the Future publication, and the and Pickering News Advertiser, Oshawa- Ontario Scholars section, which features a Whitby-Clarington This Week, the Since she became editor-in-chief in picture of every Ontario Scholar in Uxbridge Times Journal, Port Perry Star, 1991, Burghardt’s newspapers have collec- Durham Region. Northumberland News, Brooklin Citizen, tively won 251 awards at the SNA, OCNA Burghardt has always encouraged a Durham Business Times, and Durham and CCNA levels. Over the past few years, strong level of community involvement Parent. she has led a complete technology revolu- Continued on page 10 OCNA’S NEWSCLIPS • AUGUST 2006 3 OCNA employee profile OCNA’s latest addition s OCNA contin- proofreading and sending loves to cook and in a house- ues to offer them out. She brings with hold with three growing boys value-added her six years of accounting and two grown men - her hus- services to our experience and got her rele- band and her husband’s cousin members, we vant training from Humber also lives with them - she says continueA to highlight members College. she is cooking all the time. of our team. Susana said the biggest Susana said she feels very Susana Czyrnek started in challenge has been changing comfortable in her new posi- June as OCNA’s Accounting old habits. “It has been an tion and is enjoying her time at Coordinator replacing Karen easy transition into my new OCNA. Shardlow who is now OCNA’s position, but it really is hard “My experience at OCNA, Member Services Coordinator.