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The Tennessee Press
16
SEPTEMBER 2007
UT School of Journalism and Electronic Media marks 60 years
This fall, the UT School of Journalism
and Electronic Media is celebrating
a very special milestone: its 60th anniversary.
“The UT School of Journalism and
Electronic Media has a long and illustrious history. We are very proud of the
accomplishments of our outstanding
alumni and faculty, and we look forward
to celebrating the past while looking
toward an even brighter future,” said
College of Communications and Information Dean Dr. Mike Wirth.
In honor of the anniversary, the
school is inviting 24 successful alumni
back to campus during fall and spring
semesters to spend one day with
students and faculty. They will share
UT SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA
their expertise and experiences. The
school is also planning on a day-long
celebration during the fall semester and
two functions for alumni and friends in
the spring semester.
“American media and journalism are
entering a new era, and our school is
quickly moving into the educational
vanguard, preparing students to face
the challenges and opportunities that
new and old media enterprises are offering,” said Dr. Peter Gross, director of
the school. “In a fast globalizing world,
we are also acutely aware of the need
for our students to be able to function
as professionals in an international and
intercultural context.”
The school’s earliest roots date to 1947,
when the late Professor Willis C. Tucker
was picked to organize a department of
journalism for the university. The first
classes were conducted in Glocker, and
students graduated as business majors.
Less than a decade later in 1953, students
gained the option of participating in a
radio-TV sequence.
In 1969, the department moved to
Circle Park, where it joined the Department of Advertising to form the College
of Communications.
Just three years later, the radio-TV
sequence split from journalism to form
the Department of Broadcasting. In
2002, broadcasting and the School of
Journalism rejoined to form the School
of Journalism and Electronic Media.
Only a few directors have headed
the school, and most of the names are
familiar to alumni. Dr. James Crook
succeeded Tucker in 1974 and served
as director until his 2001 retirement.
Dr. Darrel Holt served as the head of
the Broadcasting Department from
its founding in 1971 until 1984. Dr.
Sam Swan served as department head
from 1984 to 1994; Dr. Barbara Moore
then served in that role from 1994
until 2003.
Today, students in the school learn
about all forms of journalism.
“No longer can students just focus
on print or broadcast journalism,”
said Gross. “With the major presence
the Web has become, students need to
have a variety of skills and be flexible
in their work.”
For more information about the 60th
anniversary of the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, visit
http://www.cci.utk.edu.
Kappa Tau Alpha inducts new members, hears Vines
sor of journalism and electronic media,
led the initiation ceremony. Moore is the
faculty adviser of UT’s Willis C. Tucker
Chapter of KTA.
Georgiana Vines, Ahlgren Distinguished Lecturer and retired associate
editor of the News Sentinel, Knoxville,
gave the 31st annual John Lain Lecture
in conjunction with the ceremony.
The veteran journalist presented
students a first-hand perspective on
the difficulties many women reporters
encountered as they made the jump
from covering home and garden events
to hard news reporting. Vines showed
the initiates a photo of her covering
Luci Baines Johnson’s Marquette College visit as well as a Scripps newsletter article detailing how women were
taking an interest in news reporting
as a career.
Vines advised all students to keep
an open perspective and always be
on time to assignments. Additionally,
she stressed that reporters should not
allow themselves to be bullied while
covering a story.
The annual John Lain Lecture honors
the late UT professor, who was a member
of the UT faculty from 1949 to 1977.
UT’s KTA chapter was established in
1952 and in 1972 was named for Professor Willis C. Tucker. Tucker established
the School of Journalism as a department in 1947 and headed its 1969 expansion into what was then known as the
College of Communications. Tucker
retired in 1974 and died in 2001.
TPA’s www.tnpublicnotice.com begins operation
BY KEVIN SLIMP
TPS technology director
C
M
Y
K
Many, if not most, TPA members have
been in the newspaper business for the
larger part of their lives. Like many of
you, I delivered my first newspaper as
a small child. Beginning at the tender
age of 9, I put the sack over my shoulder
and delivered the daily news to my
neighbors. In addition to earning a little
money for clothes and movie tickets,
delivering the news created a sense of
pride, knowing that the information in
my sack was important to those who
waited for it every day.
It’s scary to imagine what our country
would be like without newspapers. Unlike a lot of Web sites and television
stations, we’re not just in the business
of providing entertainment. Our neighbors still depend on us to provide news
about local government and matters of
importance to the general public.
Newspapers have always treated
public notices as a sacred trust held in
service to the citizenry. Governments
have relied on newspapers to inform
the people on issues of public interest.
Local community newspapers have
striven to fulfill that trust by providing
notice functions for more than a century, performing this independent role
responsibly and with great sensitivity
to the essential nature of the task.
The newspapers of Tennessee have
long championed open records and
transparency in government. In order
to take that public service a step further,
we have established a Web site that will
include all public notices printed in our
newspapers. Www.tnpublicnotice.com
became available to the public in early
September.
Following other press associations
that have taken similar steps in the
recent past, TPA has added a staff
position to oversee this project. Holly
Craft will work with the public notice
site to encourage and assist member
newspapers in adding their public
notices on the site. Don’t be surprised
when you receive an e-mail, fax or phone
call from Holly. She began working in
this area in late August and will be
contacting every newspaper to encourage them to send their content to www.
tnpublicnotice.com.
In a nutshell, here’s how the system
will work. This month, TPS members
will receive instructions on getting
public notices to the new site.
Every newspaper will be encouraged to upload their public notices to
www.tnpublicnotice.com on the same
day they publish. This will keep the
online material up to date. We plan to
get 100 percent participation from our
members.
While this may seem impossible,
Georgia Press Association recently announced that it has reached 100 percent
participation from the membership
after beginning a similar program three
years ago. It will take a combined effort
of all of our newspapers, both large and
small, to make this happen.
After the newspaper uploads its
notices to the Web site as text files,
www.tnpublicnotice.com takes it from
there. Visitors to the site can search for
notices in various ways using keywords,
dates and other information to locate
specific material. The site, very user
friendly, makes it possible to find any
public notice in the state in a matter
of seconds.
The new Tennessee public notice
Holly Craft, who
has worked for
TPA for two and
a half years,
will coordinate
t h e n e w T PA
public notices
Web site, www.
tnpublicnotice.
com.
Craft
Web site is just one more way for
newspapers to encourage the public’s
right to know. Expect to receive e-mails,
faxes and phone calls from Holly in the
coming days as she works to encourage
members to add their information
to the site. One can reach Holly at
[email protected] or (865) 5845761, ext. 118, with questions.
Board Meeting, Hall of Fame induction set
CMYK
Twenty-two outstanding College
of Communication and Information
students have been initiated into Kappa
Tau Alpha, a mass communications
honor society.
Seniors, second semester juniors
and graduate students in the top 10
percent of their class are invited annually to join.
Dr. Barbara Moore, associate profes-
No. 3
SEPTEMBER 2007
Vol. 71
TPA members are able to upload public notices to the new www.
tnpublicnotice.com.
TPA members will gather Friday and
Saturday, Nov. 16-17, in Knoxville for
two important reasons. The first is the
annual Fall Board of Directors Meeting,
and the second is the ceremony to induct
posthumously four people into the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame.
Selected for induction are: Frank
R. Ahlgren (1903-95), The Commercial Appeal, Memphis (1936-68); Col.
Thomas Boyers (1825-95), TPA founding
president, Gallatin Examiner; Ralph
A. Millett Jr. (1919-2000), Knoxville
News-Sentinel (1966-84); and Willis C.
Tucker (1907-2001), University of Tennessee School of Journalism, Knoxville
(1947-1974).
The weekend also will include time
for continuing discussion regarding a
mission statement for TPA and some
TPA committee meetings. A limited
number of tickets to the UT vs. Vanderbilt football game will be available
for purchase by TPA members.
The meetings and banquet will be held
at the Knoxville Marriott.
Attendees may make reservations by
contacting the Marriott at (865) 637-1234.
TPA’s rate is $124 plus tax per night.
Friday, Nov. 16
1:00 p.m. Registration
1:30 p.m. Committee meeting
2:30 p.m. Committee meeting
3:30 p.m. Mission statement discussion. All members are encouraged to
participate.
6:00 p.m. Reception
6:30 p.m. Banquet/Hall of Fame
Induction Ceremony
NewsSwap now available to TPAers
Anyone with access to the Internet can search for public notices using
www.tnpublicnotice.com.
INSIDE
SHERRER
2
JOURNALISMEDUCATION 3
BE KIND CONTEST
POWERS PROFILE
3
4
NewsSwap, a story exchange feature
initiated by TPA President Pauline D.
Sherrer and the TPA Board of Directors,
went online Aug. 31. NewsSwap is a
section of TPA’s Web site, www.tnpress.
com, where members can exchange
human interest stories.
“These will not be major stories, just
those that would generate interest in
any community they are published.…
(NewsSwap) will be a place on the TPA
Web site where editors and reporters
can upload those odd, bizarre, unusual
news stories and tidbits that we all love
to read and talk about,” said Sherrer.
Every member newspaper will
ENGRAVINGS
SEIGENTHALER
10
12
receive information regarding the
download procedure, as well as a
user name and password. All members
are encouraged to NewsSwap icon
submit stories and
to use the stories on
the site with proper attribution to the
submitting newspaper.
“If we all participate in this venture,
it will be a smashing success for TPA
members and will enhance your readership sustainability,” Sherrer said.
GIBSON, FOI
SLIMP
13
15
Saturday, Nov. 17
8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m. Board of Directors Meeting
open to all members
TBA
UT vs. Vanderbilt football
Ad/Circ retreat
for managers
Tennessee newspapers’ advertising
and circulation personnel can still
register for the annual Ad/Circ
Managers’ Retreat.
While the deadline for registering at
the hotel with the TPA discount has
passed, one can still register with TPA
and find lodging there or elsewhere.
Besides planning for the annual
spring Ad/Circ Conference and Ideas
Contest, the event is useful for exchanging ideas about how to do the best job
on related topics.
Robyn Gentile, member services
manager, can answer questions. One
can contact her at rgentile@tnpress.
com or (865) 584-5761.
Details
What: Ad/Circ Managers’ Retreat
Who: Advertising and circulation managers and others interested
in these subjects
When: Friday and Saturday, Sept. 21-22
Where: Crowne Plaza, Knoxville
IN CONTACT
Phone: (865) 584-5761
Fax: (865) 558-8687
Online: www.tnpress.com
CMYK
BY APRIL M. MOORE
Information specialist
UT College of Communications, Knoxville
(USPS 616-460)
Published monthly by the
TENNESSEE PRESS SERVICE, INC.
for the
TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION, INC.
435 Montbrook Lane
Knoxville, Tennessee 37919
Telephone (865) 584-5761/Fax (865) 558-8687/www.tnpress.com
Subscriptions: $6 annually
Periodicals Postage Paid At Knoxville,TN
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Tennessee Press,
435 Montbrook Lane, Knoxville,TN 37919.
The Tennessee Press is printed by The Standard Banner, Jefferson City.
Greg M. Sherrill.....................................................Editor
Elenora E. Edwards.............................Managing Editor
Robyn Gentile..........................Production Coordinator
Angelique Dunn...............................................Assistant
20
Member
07
Tennessee Press Association
The Tennessee Press
is printed on recycled paper
and is recyclable.
www.tnpress.com
The Tennessee Press can be read on
CMYK
OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION
TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION
Pauline D. Sherrer, Crossville Chronicle.......................................... President
Tom Griscom, Chattanooga Times Free Press............................Vice President
Victor Parkins, The Milan Mirror-Exchange.................................Vice President
Bill Williams, The Paris Post-Intelligencer...........................................Treasurer
Greg M. Sherrill, Knoxville....................................................Executive Director
DIRECTORS
Art Powers, Johnson City Press...........................................................District 1
Kevin Burcham, News-Herald, Lenoir City...........................................District 2
Tom Overton III, Advocate and Democrat, Sweetwater......................District 3
Linn Hudson, LaFollette Press..............................................................District 4
Hugh Jones, Shelbyville Times-Gazette...............................................District 5
Ellen Leifeld, The Tennessean, Nashville..............................................District 6
John Finney, Buffalo River Review, Linden.........................................District 7
Brad Franklin, The Lexington Progress.................................................District 8
Joel Washburn, Dresden Enterprise.....................................................District 9
Eric Barnes, The Daily News, Memphis..............................................District 10
Steve Lake, Pulaski Citizen......................................................................At large
TENNESSEE PRESS SERVICE
Dale C. Gentry, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City.........................President
Pauline D. Sherrer, Crossville Chronicle......................................Vice President
W. R. (Ron) Fryar, American Hometown Publishing, Nashville...........Director
Bob Parkins, The Milan Mirror-Exchange...............................................Director
Mike Pirtle, Murfreesboro.......................................................................Director
Michael Williams, The Paris Post-Intelligencer......................................Director
Greg M. Sherrill............................................................Executive Vice President
TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION
W.R. (Ron) Fryar, American Hometown Publishing, Franklin............President
Gregg K. Jones, The Greeneville Sun..........................................Vice President
Richard L. Hollow, Knoxville....................................................General Counsel
Greg M. Sherrill....................................................................Secretary-Treasurer
CONTACT THE MANAGING EDITOR
TPAers with suggestions, questions or comments about items inTheTennessee
Press are welcome to contact the managing editor. Call Elenora E. Edwards,
(865) 457-5459; send a note to P.O. Box 502, Clinton, TN 37717-0502; or e-mail
[email protected]. The October issue deadline is Sept. 10.
SEPTEMBER 2007
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
15
We can help with school safety
InCopy creates editorial workflow, harmony
Here it is September, and I can only sit and wonder
Deployment—calls for the first four law enforcewhat happened to July and August.
ment personnel on the scene to enter the building
Children are experiencing new schools, new
when active shooting is occurring.
teachers and soon-to-be new friends. Some schools
After reading these articles, I immediately called
are already looking at ways to cut expenses. Boards
our city police chief, asking if his men had been
of education must be made aware that the safety
trained in QUAD. He replied that they had trained
of our children takes priority.
inside a school during in-service without the presOne of the privileges that comes with the TPA
ence of school children.
president title is all the e-mail clips received daily
Crossville Police Chief Beatty now has in
from our fabulous Tennessee Press Service Clip- YOUR
his department articles from your newspapers
ping Bureau. In addition to articles with the incluexpounding on the various training occurring in
sion of words such as public notice, open records, PRESIDING other Tennessee cities. I will also be sending these
Frank Gibson, Tennessee newspapers, I asked for
same articles to members of our school board.
articles with words such as school disasters, school REPORTER
A major issue facing our communities is the
safety and school tragedy.
squabble over funding of school resource ofThe Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, reports, “Train- Pauline D. Sherrer ficers—a valuable tool, not only on the front
ing prepares officers for disasters,” on how the
line in our schools, but in counteracting school
officers with rifles shouldered and handguns drawn
violence.
moved down the corridors of McReynolds Building at Austin
As leaders in our respective communities, we can publicize
Peay State University looking for a shooter. Of course the the issue, strongly urge that our elected officials sit down
headline above the photo of two officers standing in a multi- at the table with their counterparts to find a solution to the
level stairway with guns pointed in two different directions funding issue, and we can encourage our readers to demand
said, “Mock shooting exercise at APSU.”
that SROs be employed.
The Johnson City Press picked up this story from AP and
|
ran an AP photo of APSU police officer Heather Taylor
The Tennessee Press Association Foundation bought
pointing a long-barreled weapon in the direction of the the rights for you to publish FREE “The Liberty Pole” in
photographer.
your newspaper as part of your Newspaper in Education
Elizabethton Star’s article titled “City officers train for ac- program. This is a serial story geared toward students in
tive shooter situations” reported officers of the Elizabethton grades three through seven. “The goal of this program is
Police Department just received special training that will to increase newspaper awareness and readership among
help them respond to an active shooter situation, such as this age group and to get parents and teachers involved in
a school shooting.
encouraging students to read,” stated Tom Overton, chairShelbyville Times-Gazette reported that the THP, Bedford man of the NIE/Literacy Committee.
County Emergency Management Agency and the 17th Judicial
I hope many of you mailed back your application to receive
District Drug Task Force recently joined forces to sponsor 16 free chapters of “The Liberty Pole.”
school safety training for law enforcement officers in three
Please pass along your NIE success stories or other ways
counties, Bedford, Lincoln and Moore, and police officers from that your newspaper or your online edition has become
Shelbyville and Wartrace police departments participated in involved in the school systems. We can share these success
a two-day class on how to respond to an active gunman in a stories with other newspapers that are not involved in the
school incident. Many of the deputies attending the training school system.
were school resource officers (SROs).
|
The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro, reported that SROs
Next month will be here before I finish this month! Create
in Rutherford County Schools will have super two-way radios a smile on someone’s face!
that will make it possible to communicate directly with the
agencies that respond to a school crisis. In two years, Ruth- PAULINE D. SHERRER is publisher of the Crossville
erford County has benefited from $75,000 in grants.
Chronicle.
A new method of response called QUAD—Quick Action
workflow systems,
LiveEdit users can
then open a file in
either InDesign
If you’ve been payor InCopy to view
ing close attention,
or make changes.
you’ve probably
Next, a reporter
heard me mention
might open the file
InDesign’s companin InCopy, write a
ion application, Instory in the allotted
Copy. Paginators
space and check the
know InDesign as
file in, making it
one of the tools of
Slimp
available to anyone
choice for creating
in the workflow.
newspaper pages.
For others, like editors and reporters, Immediately, the
InDesign can be overkill. Sure, you paginator receives a
could use InDesign as a word proces- cue that a story has
sor if you wanted to, but it’s a lot more been changed, then
application than most people need to accepts the change
place text on a page.
(with the click of a
This is where InCopy comes in. button) in the InDe- The left-hand page is from InDesign. Next to it is the same page as it appears to another
user in InCopy. InCopy allows users to see how their text and other elements appear on the
InCopy has been around for quite a sign document.
while, but most folks at Tennessee
T h e s e c o n d InDesign page.
how their text will appear on the page, Excel spreadsheets into tables, work
newspapers didn’t become familiar method of creating
with it until recent versions. Working LiveEdit workflows begins with the re- allowing them to create visual, as well with e-mail assignments and perforin conjunction with InDesign, InCopy porter. He writes the story, then checks as literary, masterpieces. This can mance improvements, the reasons
creates an editorial workflow, allowing the file in. After the file is checked in, be done from within InCopy without to consider the LiveEdit workflow
writers, editors and paginators to work an editor might check out the story to buying InDesign.
continue to grow.
There are a few reasons InCopy users
in harmony.
edit and suggest corrections. In addiUpgrades from previous versions are
Basically, the InDesign/InCopy tion to removing, adding and making should consider upgrading to the CS3 available for $89. The full version of
(LiveEdit) workflow functions one of corrections, InCopy users can create version. Primarily, you want to use the InCopy CS3 is $249. For more informatwo ways. More commonly, a pagina- “notes” that can be seen throughout same version of InCopy and InDesign. tion, visit www.adobe.com.
tor lays out the basic design of a page, the workflow but don’t end up on the If your designers are using InDesign
Institute of Newspaper
CS3, your editorial staff should be usleaving room for text frames, photos printed page.
Technology update
and other elements. Next, she “assigns”
Next, the paginator opens a blank In- ing InCopy CS3. It makes the workflow
You might have heard. The Institute
each element to be available to InCopy Design page (or template) and places the run much more smoothly. And at $89, of Newspaper Technology filled to
users. Using a check-in/check-out pro- InCopy text files in frames throughout the price is right.
capacity in July. Even after adding
An interesting addition to the CS3 20 spaces for students, we don’t have
cedure common in other editorial the page, creating a workflow between
her page and the text from version of InCopy is the ability to work nearly enough space for all the folks
InCopy. Still, anyone along with e-mail-based assignments. This who’d like to attend.
the workflow could check allows the paginator to send stories and
For those of you who registered in
out, edit and check in text, graphics as single assignment by e-mail. time, you’re in for quite an experiwith the changes appearing Basically, this means you could create a ence. We’ve added additional classes
LiveEdit workflow between persons in in InDesign and Dreamweaver to acon the InDesign page.
As I speak about new different locations, using e-mail where a commodate the folks who signed up for
technology at industry and server isn’t present to share their files. these topics. In all, there will be more
press association gather- Yes, very interesting. Assignments have than 70 students and instructors at the
ings, I generally receive also been improved in InCopy CS3 (and October session.
more questions concern- InDesign CS3), making it easier to keep Webinars continue to draw crowds
ing InCopy than any other related stories together. This makes it
We held our second webinar in August,
software product. Generally, easier for InCopy users who want to with TPA members from Johnson City
publishers who haven’t seen open an individual story rather than to McKenzie in attendance. Good crowds
the application have heard an assignment file containing several and no technical problems have been
of it and want to know how stories. Let’s not forget InCopy CS3’s the highlights of both sessions held
it works. “Can you really ability to import Excel spreadsheets to date. Our next webinar, The Basics
see how the text is going to into tables.
of Photo Editing in Photoshop, will be
I’ve
worked
with
several
newspapers
appear
on
the
fi
nal
InDesign
held on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 5.
InCopy CS3 allows users to create assignments that can be e-mailed to field reporters page while you’re working in over the past three years to implement For more information, or to download
and editors who aren’t connected to the InCopy?” I hear that one a lot. the LiveEdit workflow. With each a registration form, visit www.tnpress.
upgrade, the workflow continues to com and click on the TRAINING button
And yes, you can.
workflow server.
Folks who write cutlines improve in ease of use and capabilities. on the right sidebar.
and headlines love the ability to see With InCopy CS3’s ability to convert
Traveling Campus coming
The Southern Newspaper Publishers
Association’s (SNPA) Traveling Campus will be held Sept. 12 and 13 at the
News Sentinel Building in Knoxville.
Topics offered are for management,
newsroom, advertising and circulation
personnel.
Newsroom: Great media writing and
secrets of successful storytelling, presented by Paula LaRocque, Arlington,
Texas.
Circulation: Essential skills for
district mangers and the past, present
and future of circulation, presented by
Bob Bobber, Orlando, Fla.
Advertising: Ad design and copywriting for the newspaper sales reps
and selling the benefits of newspaper
advertising, presented by Carol Richer
Gammell, Sales Training Plus, Tulsa,
Okla.
Management: Critical management
skills presented by Jules Ciotta, Motivation Communications, Atlanta, Ga.
Details and registration information
can be found at www.travelingcampus.
com or by calling (404) 256-0444. The
Traveling Campus program is sponsored by the
SNPA Foundation and co-sponsored
in Tennessee by the Tennessee Press
Association Foundation.
Plan for National Newspaper Week
National Newspaper Week will be
celebrated Oct. 7 through 13 across
the nation. The theme is one highly
important to the people of the United
States: public notices.
The theme is “Public Notices in
Newspapers...Because good government depends on it.”
Newspaper Association Managers,
which has sponsored the observance
since 1940, produces a kit with a va-
riety of elements to help newspapers
tell their collective story, the role all
of them play in our society, or each
one’s story.
The Tennessee Press Association has
bought kits for all its member newspapers, which will be distributed in plenty
of time for inclusion in planning.
For more information, contact Robyn
Gentile, member services manager, at
[email protected].
HOW TO CONTACT US
Tennessee Press Association
BY KEVIN SLIMP
TPS technology director
Holocaust exhibit travels to Poland
BY STAFF
News Sentinel, Knoxville
When the Germans invaded George
Messing’s home country of Hungary in
1943, his father took him to a children’s
safe house.
For Messing, now a Knoxville resident, and his younger brother, it would
not do to be separated from their father
or mother. They escaped the safe house
and went looking for their father at his
former place of business.
It would be at least a year before they
found their father, who walked 250 miles
from Paris to get back to his family.
Messing is one of 73 Tennesseans
featured in “Living On,” an exhibit of
photographs and stories of Holocaust
survivors, liberators and U.S. Army
witnesses. A portion of the display is
now on exhibit in Warsaw, Poland.
The exhibit, organized by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission (THC),
opened in Tennessee in February 2005
and got its first international opening
(June 21) at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Warsaw.
Robert Heller, a University of Tennessee professor of journalism and
photographer of the project, and journalist Dawn Wiess Smith spent three
years finding people, interviewing and
photographing them. THC curator Susan Knowles helped with the interviews
and did much of the editing.
Those featured are Holocaust survivors who were born in the prewar
boundaries of Poland and several
liberators, according to UT’s Office of
Media Relations.
Heller said having the exhibit travel
to Warsaw “is significant because it
makes the project come full circle.” He
photographed some of the areas where
the Polish survivors lived and were
imprisoned while in Poland.
According to UT, Heller traveled to
Poland with several members of the
THC to attend the Warsaw opening,
speak to students at the academy and
visit some important sites.
Mail: 435 Montbrook Lane,
Knoxville, TN 37919
Phone: (865) 584-5761
Fax: (865) 558-8687
Web: www.tnpress.com
E-mail: (name)@tnpress.com
Those with boxes, listed
alphabetically:
Laurie Alford (lalford)
Moody Castleman
(mcastleman)
Pam Corley (pcorley)
Holly Craft
[[email protected]]
Angelique Dunn (adunn)
Beth Elliott (belliott)
Robyn Gentile (rgentile)
Earl Goodman (egoodman)
Kathy Hensley (khensley)
Barry Jarrell (bjarrell)
Brenda Mays (bmays)
Amanda Pearce (apearce)
Brandi Richard (brichard)
Greg Sherrill (gsherrill)
Kevin Slimp (kslimp)
Advertising e-mail:
Knoxville office:
[email protected]
Tennessee Press Service
Mail: 435 Montbrook Lane,
Knoxville, TN 37919
Phone: Knoxville,
(865) 584-5761
Fax: Knoxville,
(865) 558-8687
Phone: Nashville area,
(615) 459-0655
Fax: Nashville area,
(615) 459-0652
Web: www.tnpress.com
Tennessee Press
Association Foundation
Mail: 435 Montbrook Lane,
Knoxville, TN 37919
Phone: (865) 584-5761
Fax: (865) 558-8687
Web: www.tnpress.com
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
2
SEPTEMBER 2007
Pair charged
The
Tennessee Press
Association Foundation
wishes to thank
Joel Washburn
for his contribution.
Committee hopes to foster
industry-student network
Two men have been charged with
stealing and robbing dozens of
newspaper vending boxes belong to
The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville.
Eighteen machines were found in an
apartment Antony W. Gibson, 44, and
William S. Cash, 29, share. Sheriff ’s
deputies found other vending machines
as well.The pair are charged with the
theft of property valued at more than
$10,000.
BY KENT FLANAGAN
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro
The Tennessee Press Association office
in Knoxville will be closed
for Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 3.
Tennessee Press
Service handled this
much advertising for
TPA member newspapers:
July 2007: $560,948
Year* as of Nov. 30: $4,807,657
*The Tennessee Press Service, Inc., fiscal year runs Dec. 1 through Nov. 30.
STEVE LAKE | PULASKI CITIZEN
FormerTPA executive director Don Campbell talks with local merchants on making the most of their advertising
dollars. He led a retail seminar June 21 at First National Bank, Pulaski, sponsored by the Pulaski Citizen and
The Giles Free Press. It is available for other interested papers.
Three faces are new at TPA
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
The Tennessee Press Association
staff has grown by three in recent
months. New, or relatively new, faces
are those of Stanley
R. Dunlap, a reader
in the Clipping Bureau; Earl E. Goodman, print media
buyer for Tennessee Press Service;
and Joshua M.
(Josh) Ley, scanner
and tabber in the
Dunlap
Clipping Bureau.
Dunlap is a student at UT School of
Journalism and Electronic Media and
is interested in print
media. Earlier, he
served internships
at The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis,
and The Daily Herald, Columbia.
Originally from
Nashville, he lives
Goodman
in West Knoxville.
His parents are Judith and Wade Dunlap of Nashville. He has a half-sister,
Latonya Connor of Chicago.
He likes to travel and read and check
out various newspaper Web sites. His
favorite movies are Godfather I and II.
Announcing...
New 2x4 Option
Advertisers can double their space &
Newspapers can double their commission
Tennessee’s 2x2 Network
advertisers have a choice2x2 or 2x4?
2x4?
Contact TPS for the details
(865) 584-5761, ext. 117 or e-mail
[email protected]
There are 80 participating newspapers. If your newspaper does
not participate, you could be missing out on great commissions.
How about 40%?
• Tennessee’s Classi¿ed Advertising Network • Tennessee’s 2x2 Display Ad Network •
• Tennessee’s Classi¿ed Ad Network • Tennessee’s 2x2 Display Ad Network
Dunlap and his wife enjoy NASCAR.
“We root for different drivers, so that
makes it interesting,” he said.
Goodman has been with TPS since
May 21.He handles public notice advertising placed by the state, mainly the
Department of Transportation.
He worked at the LaFollette Press
from 1985 to 2002, beginning as a parttime advertising representative and
then handling obits, birthdays and
miscellaneous news. He switched to
accounting and later became office
manager. He also helped with make-up
and handled various other duties. From
2002 to 2004, he was co-publisher of the
Volunteer Times. For three years he
owned and operated a music-CD store
in LaFollette.
Goodman, originallyfromCaryville,
lives there with his
wife, the former
Rhonda Phillips of
Jacksboro. His parents are Earl and
Murlen Goodman
Ley
of Caryville.
Goodman said he loves all forms of
music and enjoys reading. He also loves
newspapers, and friends bring him copies of the papers published wherever
they travel.
Ley joined TPA Nov. 20, 2006. He scans
clippings for e-clips and also tabs.
He was a radio producer three years
in Johnson City and earlier attended
UT-Chattanooga for two years.
A Knoxville native, Ley lives on
Sutherland Ave. His parents are James
and Lee Ley. He has two brothers.
Ley said he listens to classic and new
rock music and enjoys college and professional football, baseball, basketball
and NASCAR. He jogs and enjoys other
fitness routines.
The Jour nalism
Education Committee has an ambitious
agenda for the coming year under the
leadership of new
Chairman Amelia
Hipps, managing editor of The Lebanon
Flanagan
Democrat.
At the top of the committee “to do”
list is an organized effort to create more
networking opportunities between
TPA members and college student
journalists.
“TPA is looking forward to hosting a
reception during our winter convention
for college student journalists. This
will be the first step of many steps
forthcoming that will create bonding,
enthusiasm, excitement, opportunities
and friendships between working members of our association and those that
are the future of our industry,” stated
TPA President Pauline D. Sherrer.
To help develop a closer and more
active relationship between TPA and
student journalists, a statewide college
press association is being organized
at Middle Tennessee State University,
Murfreesboro.
The new organization is called the
Tennessee Intercollegiate Press Association (TNIPA), which will begin
its first membership drive during the
fall semester, seeking participation
from college student publications and
universities and colleges that offer
mass communication and journalism
courses.
The TPA winter board meeting is
expected to provide TNIPA members
their first opportunity to organize and
elect officers.
Journalism students at MTSU have developed Web site content for TNIPA, including mission and vision statements,
logo, proposed bylaws, constitution,
contest rules and job and internship
postings and other resources for student
journalists. The interactive site is under
development and is expected to go live
by the middle of September.
While other states like Texas, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia run
similar networking sites, the TNIPA
is the first for Tennessee in more than
25 years. There was a mention of a
Tennessee College Press Association
in the archives of the Tennessee Press
Association Foundation dating back
to the 1970s.
“This initiative is the first recognition
in Tennessee of the need to connect
those who practice mass communication with those who teach and learn,”
said TPA Vice President Tom Griscom,
editor and publisher of Chattanooga
Times Free Press. “For those of us
who look at changes in the media as
convergence, this initiative is another
converging way to link the parts for
the future.”
KENT FLANAGAN is distinguished
journalist in residence for MTSU’s School
of Journalism in the College of Mass
Communication. He also serves as vice
chairman of the Journalism Education
Committee. For more information about
the Tennessee Intercollegiate Press
Association, he can be reached at (615)
898-2495 or [email protected].
3
BE KIND TO EDITORS CONTEST
ENTRY FORM
(Deadline Oct. 8)
Newspaper__________________________________
Editor(s) shown kindness_____________________
_____________________________________________
How, when, where___________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Entry contact, phone, e-mail__________________
_____________________________________________
Send entries to Managing Editor Elenora E. Edwards, The Tennessee
Press, 435 Montbrook Lane, Knoxville, Tenn. 37919, or fax to
(865) 558-8687.
5th Be Kind to Editors Contest
coming up; September’s the month
Get ready, get set to show your
appreciation to the editor or editors at
your newspaper. Join The Tennessee
Press in observing Be Kind to Editors
Month in September, and enter the
Fifth Annual Press Be Kind to Editors
Contest.
Take this opportunity to let people
at other Tennessee newspapers know
what top-notch leadership you have in
your newsroom.
Here’s how it works. At some point
in September, do something special
for your editor or editors. Then, let us
know about it no later than Oct. 8. A
judge will select the kindest of the kind,
and that winner will be announced in
the November issue of The Tennessee
Press.
Later, by arrangement with the winner, TPA staff will visit the newspaper
and treat the newsroom staff.
Previous winners were The Daily
Times, Maryville; The Jackson Sun; the
Chattanooga Times Free Press; and the
Monroe County Advocate & Democrat,
Sweetwater.
If one has questions, he or she should
contact Elenora E. Edwards, managing
editor, The Tennessee Press, at (865) 4575459 or [email protected].
See the entry form above.
Tennessee High School Press Association now operated at Vanderbilt
For about a year now, the Tennessee
High School Press Association has been
coordinated at Vanderbilt University,
Nashville. It has transferred its archives
of awards, records and student achievement to Vanderbilt after spending the
last 60 years under the authority of the
University of Tennessee’s College of
Communication.
Vanderbilt Student Communications
(VSC) is directing THSPA after four
years of successive growth by its own
organization, the Middle Tennessee
Scholastic Press Association. MTSPA,
which was created by VSC Director
Chris Carroll in 2002, has been folded
into the THSPA to form one organization and preserve THSPA’s records that
stretch to the 1940s.
“I think it’s really a source of pride
for Vanderbilt that now the university is
home to the THSPA,” Carroll said.
H.L. Hall, who has been involved with
student journalism for nearly 40 years
as a high school teacher in Missouri
and is nationally recognized in the field,
now serves as executive director of the
new THSPA. He served in a similar
capacity for the last three years with
the MTSPA.
Under Hall’s direction, attendance
for the association’s annual student
media workshop has increased each
year, topping more than 600 students in
the spring of 2005. The workshop is conducted on campus during Vanderbilt’s
spring break.
For the 2006 workshop, the MTSPA
membership grew to 50 schools and
74 memberships, with each competing
category such as newspaper, yearbook
or broadcast counting as a separate
membership.
Hall retired to Hendersonville in 1999
after spending 38 years as a teacher
in Kansas and Missouri, including 26
years advising the school newspaper
and yearbook at Kirkwood High School
just outside St. Louis, Mo. The Dow
Jones Newspaper Fund in 1982 named
him the national Newspaper Adviser
of the Year, and in 1995 the Journalism
Education Association named him the
first recipient of the national Yearbook
Adviser of the Year award.
In 1996 the National Scholastic Press
Association established the H.L. Hall
Fellowship for Yearbook Advisers,
which awards a $500 fellowship to a
qualifying teacher for a credit-bearing
university or college-based summer
course in advising school media. Hall
is the author of four journalism books
used in high school classrooms across
the country.
The THSPA’s Web site is at www.
tennpress.org.
Minimum wage posting requirements for U.S. employers
The deadline was July 24 for most
U.S. employers to post the new federal
minimum wage increases that recently
were signed into law. Workplaces
subject to the Fair Labor Standards
Act’s minimum wage provisions are
required to display the new rates in a
conspicuous location.
The U.S. Department of Labor has
created a poster that explains the new
minimum wage law to employees.
Copies can be downloaded at www.
dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/posters/flsa.htm.
This is the first increase in the federal
minimum wage since 1997. The new rate
of $7.25 per hour will be phased in over
26 months according to the following
timetable:
1. First increase - $5.85 per hour, effective on July 24, 2007
2. Second increase - $6.55 per hour,
one year after the first increase (July
24, 2008)
3. Third increase - $7.25 per hour,
two years after the first increase (July
24, 2009).
FORESIGHT
2007
SEPTEMBER
3: TPA office will be closed to
observe Labor Day
8: International Literacy Day
12-13: SNPA Traveling Campus, News Sentinel Building,
Knoxville
16-22: Imagination Library
Week
17: Constitution Day
21-22: TPA Advertising/Circulation Managers’ Retreat,
Knoxville
26-29: NNA 121st Annual Convention & Trade Show, Waterside Marriott, Norfolk, Va.
26-29: National Conference of
Editorial Writers Convention,
Hotel Intercontinental, Kansas City, Mo.
27-30: Religion Newswriters
Association, The Historic
Menger Hotel, San Antonio,
Texas
OCTOBER
3-6: Associated Press Managing Editors Annual Conference, J.W. Marriott Hotel,
Washington, D.C.
4-7: 2007 SPJ Convention and
National Journalism Conference, Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
7: Newspaper Career Day
7-13: National Newspaper
Week
13: Newspaper Carrier Day
11-13: 10th Institute of Newspaper Technology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
11-13: Society of News Design
Annual Workshop & Exhibition, Boston, Mass.
14-16: Southern Newspaper
Publishers Association Convention, The Greenbrier,
White Sulphur Springs,
W. Va.
NOVEMBER
8-11: Journalism Education Association, Philadelphia, Pa.
16-17: TPA Fall Board Meeting and Hall of Fame Induction, Marriott, Knoxville
2008
FEBRUARY
13-15: TPA Winter Convention, Sheraton Downtown
Hotel, Nashville
APRIL
10-12: Ad/Circ Conference,
Gatlinburg
JUNE
19-20: TPA 139th Anniversary
Summer Convention, Johnson City
Read
The Tennessee Press
—then pass it on!
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
14
SEPTEMBER 2007
CMYK
Maybe bloggers can adopt P.R. model
Where’s my Teamsters card? As a condition
of full-time employment to run a printing press
for a Minnesota truck company, I had to join the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. I
quit a part-time, low-paying job I loved as sports
editor of a weekly to take the new position. The
steep monthly dues were offset by good wages,
which allowed me to earn a master’s degree while
paying rent on an apartment.
Now another union is attempting to form, as
you may have read recently. But this one is for
bloggers. An Associated Press story by Ashley
Heher said:
“In a move that might make some people scratch
their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers (sic) are trying to band together to
form a labor union they hope will help them receive
health insurance, conduct collective bargaining
or even set professional standards.”
It is applaudable that this coalition is thinking
about setting professional values. Perhaps that
step should be taken first so the assortment of
individuals with blogs who claim to be journalists
can be better classified.
AP’s article talks about similar activities when
freelance writers wanted more rights and protections about 25 years ago. But the wide range of
freelance writers wanting more clout consisted of
people who submitted articles to editors for publication. That gatekeeper function performed by the
professional journalist protected the public—for
the most part—from sensational, opinionated,
dogmatic outbursts. However, all bloggers have
their own 2007 version of a printing press—the
World Wide Web.
That is not to deny that many Tennessee bloggers are indeed trained writers with a sense of
fairness and professionalism. But for those who
a member? What are the guidelines? What
are not—and there are thousands—where
about a looser federation for those who
is the gatekeeper function? Bloggers,
are activist bloggers to something else
identified by many seasoned newspaper
for those who merely want to chat about
journalists as thin-skinned, may cry
video games or the hottest girl band?
censorship if all of them are not allowed
Not all bloggers are enchanted with the
to unionize.
union concept.
The Pew Internet & American Life
“The blogosphere is such a weird
Project estimates 11 percent of American
term and such a weird idea,” admits
Internet users have made Web pages or
blogs for others, and eight percent have PRESSING Curt Hopkins, founder of the Committee to Protect Bloggers, in the AP story.
created their own online journals or We“It’s anyone who wants to do it. There’s
blogs. More than 120,000 blogs are going ISSUES
absolutely no commonality there. How
online every day.
Current debate brings back a mid- Randy Hines will they find a commonality to go on? I
think it’s doomed to failure on any sort
20th century history lesson about the
public relations profession. Edward
of large scale.”
Bernays, considered by many to be the father of
Blogging also was discussed in June in New
modern P.R., advocated for the licensing of P.R.
practitioners. He thought such a move would
eliminate the charlatans and elevate the profession. But implementing licensure procedures
Two Tennessee newspaper advertising directors
(such as producing and grading examinations, have been elected to leadership positions with the
adopting minimum educational requirements, Mid-Atlantic Newspaper Advertising and Marketsetting uniform standards) proved too much of ing Executive (NAME).
an obstacle. What about someone who passed the
Artie Wehenkel, advertising director with
licensing exam in one state but wants to practice The Greeneville Sun, was elected executive vice
in another? Many public relations activities are president, and Bill Cummings, advertising sales
conducted nationwide and worldwide.
manager with the Johnson City Press, was elected
A solution for P.R. was to create an accreditation to a three-year term on the board of directors.
process back in 1965 that was voluntary. Members
who wanted to prove their professionalism could
become certified as competent, experienced practitioners by undergoing oral and written exams
The Southern Circulation Managers Association
and passing a portfolio review process. Anyone (SCMA) has elected Tennesseans to leadership
can still claim to be a P.R. person, but only those positions for 2007-08.
who are accredited can use that status in their
Jim Boyd, News Sentinel, Knoxville, is serving
materials.
as third vice president; Heather Nicholson, The
Heher mentions that the union blog proposal has Lebanon Democrat, as a state director, a position
lots of questions unanswered. Who should become formerly held by Phil Hensley, Johnson City Press;
PROFILE
News-Sentinel in the advertising department, where he rose to
national advertising manager, advertising director and later
business manager. He retired after six years at the corporate
office of Scripps-Howard in New York City and passed away in
1976. Mother was very active in our schools through the years,
as she was at Ft. Sanders Hospital, where she recently was cited
as a 40-year Pink Lady volunteer. She was also a very active
volunteer at Ramsey House and her church, Sequoyah Hills
Presbyterian. For years she was active in garden clubs and
loved her flowers. She recently relocated to a retirement home
in Black Mountain, N. C.
Art Powers
TPA director, District 1
Publisher, Johnson City Press
Personal: I grew up in Knoxville on the campus of the University of Tennessee, as did my wife, Fran. We attended the same
kindergarten and began dating while at West High School. We
don’t remember not knowing each other. She IS my best friend
and love. Her interests are working for the Johnson City Area
Arts Council, Ronald McDonald House here in Johnson City and
with Adult Day Services, a United Way agency, and working out
in the gym. I was a marketing major at the university and graduated in 1972. I have a brother, Frank, who is retired from Smith
Barney in Tampa, Fla. and lives in North Carolina.
I volunteer with the United Way, Chamber of Commerce, advisory
boards at Milligan College, foundation member of ETSU and
Northeast State, a 20-year trustee at Virginia Intermont College,
a 30-plus-year Rotarian, a member of the Business Alliance of
Northeast Tennessee/Southwest Virginia, American Cancer
Society, the Christmas Box and Children’s Advocacy Center.
Fran and I have two daughters. Erin is a sixth grade Cedar Bluff
Middle School teacher in Knoxville, with her undergraduate
and graduate degrees from UTK. Our younger daughter, Logan,
lives in Atlanta, where she is a sales supervisor for Blue Linx
Corp., which sells building materials. Logan, too, received her
undergraduate degree from UTK.
My father was in the newspaper business also. Early on he taught
English at UTK, then upon returning as a captain in the Army
Air Corps after World War II took a position with the Knoxville
York City during the New Media Academic Summit. Those in attendance—a mix of professors,
journalists, bloggers and P.R. pros—seemed to have
no problems with legitimate journalist bloggers
having shield law protection. But there’s always
the question about the 12-year-old from Nashville
who wants to trash teachers at school. Does simply
having a blog give that student full journalistic
rights without any of the responsibilities? Will
12-year-olds be card-carrying members of the
International Brotherhood of Bloggers?
DR. RANDY HINES, APR, former Tennessee
educator, teaches in the Department of Communications at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove,
Pa. 17870. One can reach him at (570) 372-4079 or
[email protected].
Tennesseans elected by Mid-Atlantic NAME
The elections came at the annual convention in
March in Durham, N.C. Wehenkel will be eligible
for election as president in 2008.
Mid-Atlantic NAME was incorporated in 1944
to promote a close working relationship among
member newspapers in Georgia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West
Virginia. Headquarters is in Raleigh, N.C.
SCMA elects for 2007-08
and Lori Waddle, The Greeneville Sun, continuing
as a state director.
Dale Long, The Greeneville Sun, is chairman of
the board and immediate past president. Glen Tabor, Kingsport Times-News, continues as treasurer.
The new SCMA president is Dean Blanchard, The
Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate.
I learned to set high goals, be knowledgeable, assertive and a
strong leader. From Gene Worrell, I learned to stay on top of
as much as I can, give back to the community, respect other
newspaper employees and do what you say you will do. I’ve tried
to live up to these, and sometimes it is most difficult.
Most important issues facing newspapers: The transition to
digital from print. The Internet is changing the way we all do
business. If we continue to keep our integrity and accuracy as
high priority, we should keep our readers, both old and new.
Music: Beach music
Job experience: We moved six times in eight and a half years
with Worrell Newspapers to different cities in Alabama, Indiana,
Virginia and Kentucky and ended our travels when we moved to
Bristol, Tenn./Va., where I was publisher of the Bristol Herald
Courier for 17 years. One year prior to the sale of the Herald
Courier, I had bought three newspapers in western North Carolina, in Boone, Blowing Rock and Newland. I ran them for about
six years and sold them when I moved to Johnson City to work
with Sandusky Newspapers in 2002.
The favorite part of my job: I like the diversity, as no day is
ever the same. I also like the creativity; we have to generate
new and exciting ideas and products for our readers both in
print and online.
Least favorite part of my job: I am growing a great dislike for
e-mails. Many are just trash, others might be considered so, as
they are just a waste of time, and too many are unsolicited. We
somehow have allowed this valuable tool to become abused.
My mentor: Well, I’ve been fortunate to have had several through
the years. My first publisher in Alabama taught me urgency. Be
smart and move faster than others and you’ll be more successful.
Then there was my good friend J.D. Swartz who now lives in Johnson City, where he is a consultant with Morris Communications.
I worked with J.D. in Charlottesville, Va., Indiana and Kentucky.
Reading: Most recently I read a small book, The Ultimate Gift,
by Jim Stovall, recommended by a friend and business associate.
It will truly inspire you.
Recreation: Golf, fly-fishing, cooking, shag dancing
Movies: Mostly the old ones, as we currently go to very few.
Television: If it has a ball, other than soccer, I usually like to
watch. The Vols.
A day to do anything I wanted: It surely would take more than
one day but I’d love to drive across the United States.
Quality time with a historical figure: That’s easy! Jesus.
To learn.
Value of TPA: Our voice within this state creates a strong agenda
if we stick together. We absolutely must have participation of all
newspapers, daily and weekly, large and small, from Memphis,
to Jackson, to Clarksville, to Knoxville, to Chattanooga, to
Greeneville, to Johnson City, to Mountain City. If our membership doesn’t grow, this organization will weaken and, in this
time and place, we just cannot let that occur.
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
13
Jury to hear News Sentinel-Knox County Commission case
Unusual is the only way you can describe it.
In a highly unusual development, a Knox County
judge has ordered—allowed might be more precise—a jury to hear a Sunshine Law case filed by
the News Sentinel, Knoxville, against the Knox
County Commission. The newspaper sued, alleging that commissioners violated the state’s open
meetings law on and before Jan. 31, the date it met
to fill 12 vacant county positions.
Eight were county commission seats and four
county-wide offices. The Tennessee Supreme Court
vacated the offices, including the high-profile
sheriff ’s post, earlier in January by finding the
officeholders were in violation of a term limit provision approved by voters several years earlier.
The Sentinel said it all in page one coverage on
Aug. 18, the day after Knox County Chancellor
Daryl R. Fansler agreed to put the case before
a jury.
“Knox County residents, forced earlier this year
to watch in silence as their leaders appointed
replacements for term-limited officeholders, now
will stand in judgment of those same leaders.”
Jury trials are not as common in Chancery Court
as they are in Criminal Court. That’s where a
panel of peers of the accused—12 citizens “tried
and true”—hears charges against the accused
and decides guilt or innocence. That’s one way
this case is unusual.
Another is for a jury to hear an open meetings
case. I don’t remember any.
The Sentinel and its attorney, Rick Hollow, who
also represents the Tennessee Press Association,
were satisfied with Fansler hearing the matter, but
the chancellor allowed Knoxville lawyer Herbert S.
Moncier to intervene, as the paper reported Aug.
18, on behalf of clients he represents in two similar
complaints. Moncier insisted on a jury trial.
The Sentinel filed suit amid public outrage by
readers who felt commissioners had
following section (c) are read together,
thumbed their noses at Knox County
but the statute has been weakened
voters and their rights under the old
by recent non-legal interpretations.
Tennessee Open Meetings (Sunshine)
In addition to the “no quorum”
Law. After the Jan. 31 meeting, the
argument, officials have argued in
newspaper was flooded with e-mails
recent years that small gatherings
and letters from readers angered at
are not meetings because there was
how the commission had conducted
no agenda, no vote was taken, and no
its business. The newspaper dutifully
decision was reached.
printed many and posted many more TENNESSEE
That interpretation has not been
on its Web site.
recognized by any Tennessee court,
At the commission meeting, the COALITION
any act of the General Assembly, or
paper charged in its lawsuit, “citizens
any opinion of the attorney general.
FOR
OPEN
were not allowed to speak to comIn fact, the County Technical Assismissioners about the appointments. GOVERNMENT tance Service at UT noted in one of its
Commissioners held no public debates
advisories to county officials across
on nominees in front of the public,
the state that the Tennessee attorney
Frank Gibson
but instead used a series of recesses
general has warned that “two or more
to debate, lobby and craft deals.”
members … should not deliberate toward a deciHere’s how some witnesses described the events. sion or make a decision on public business without
When a vote to fill one office resulted in a tie, the complying with the Open Meetings Act.”
commission would call time out, retire to areas
Subsection ( c ) of the statute refers to “chance
out and around the chamber, and resume a while meetings” of two members not being construed
later with the deadlock broken.
as a meeting per se, adding immediately that “No
Among the results: The commissioners ap- such chance meetings, informal assemblages, or
pointed as the new county sheriff a candidate electronic communication shall be used to decide
supported by term-limited Sheriff Tim Hutchison, or deliberate public business in circumvention of
who at the time was six months short of qualifying the spirit or requirements of this part.”
for a higher pension. The new sheriff bridged the
Hollow told Fansler that the “chance meetgap by keeping Hutchison on the job.
ing” exclusion amounted to a “loophole closer.”
The county attorney has argued that commis- Chancellor Fansler was not buying the quorum
sioners who participated in the small-group “re- argument, and, in an Aug. 14 ruling, agreed with
cess” meetings did not violate the Open Meetings Hollow’s argument.
Law because a quorum is required before a meeting
The county had argued that its “notion…that a
is a meeting. The commission has 19 members, so quorum is necessary” was strong enough for the
a quorum would be 10.
judge to dismiss the News Sentinel’s case on a sumThe legislature’s intent on what constitutes a mary judgment motion, but Fansler disagreed.
meeting is clear when TCA 8-44-102 (b) (2) and the
The county then asked the judge to grant it
the right to appeal his decision immediately,
but Fansler refused that motion. To do that, he
explained, the county would have to prove its
chances of getting the appeals court to reverse
his “loophole” ruling that let the News Sentinel’s
lawsuit proceed.
The chancellor noted that appellate courts in
each of the three grand divisions have struck down
the quorum defense. “I cannot in good conscience
certify there is a good probability of reversal,”
Fansler said. A day or two before that ruling, one
county commissioner vowed to take the issue all
the way to the state Supreme Court.
After denying the county’s emergency appeal,
Fansler allowed Moncier into the case. Then after
the New Sentinel agreed to Moncier’s request for
a jury trial, the judge delayed the trial from Aug.
28 until Sept. 11. Hollow said the Sentinel wanted
to expedite the case.
Hutchison is remembered as the sheriff who a few
years back was fined $300 for criminal contempt of
court in a public records fight with a Knox County
commissioner. Attorney fees and other legal costs
far exceeded six figures, and Moncier represented
the county commissioner. But I digress.
The judge then took another unusual step. The
News Sentinel reported that he warned “both sides
to check any political agendas at the courthouse
door.”
“We’re not going to get bogged down in personalities,” he said. “We’re not going to get bogged down
in bickering. This is not a political arena. This is
a courtroom. Let’s have a clean fight.”
This time the voters will have a say.
FRANK GIBSON is executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. He can be
reached at [email protected] or at (615) 202-2685.
Senate approves amendment to FOIA
National Newspaper Association
(NNA) President Jerry Tidwell, publisher of the Hood County (Texas)
News, praised the sponsors of the
Open Government Act, S. 849, a set of
improvements to the federal Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA), for steering the bill to Senate approval in late
hours before it adjourned Aug. 3 for
summer break.
Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
and John Cornyn, R-Texas, who drafted
much of the original bill, were applauded for their work in the 109th and
110th Congresses to craft amendments
that would make FOIA operate more
effectively for the public, Tidwell said.
“NNA believes strongly that Congress
must periodically revisit the FOIA
and is pleased that this Congress
has forcefully done so,” Tidwell said.
“Agencies sometimes become slack in
their recognition that the records they
hold belong to the public. Without the
continual oversight of Congress, the
press and various interest groups, FOIA
bogs down.
“There are FOIA requests still that, despite the 20-day deadline for a response,
can languish for nearly a generation. It
is time to get serious about this law.”
NNA worked with the Sunshine in
Government Initiative, an organization
of 10 media groups, to build support
for the bill.
S. 849 sets up an ombudsman in the
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to guide information
requesters and to help mediate disputes.
It also captures some features of President George W. Bush’s 2006 executive
order requiring help desks in agencies
and adding new reporting requirements. In addition, it strengthens the
right to collect attorneys’ fees when
lawsuits force records into the public
domain, sets up a tracking system so
requesters can determine where their
requests stand, and deprives agencies
of the ability to collect fees when time
limits are violated.
For the government, it provides
additional time for agencies to move
requests into the right component of an
agency, a function that the government
has complained requires more time
than the law presently permits.
The bill differs from a companion bill
passed earlier this year by the House
of Representatives. “NNA urges the
House to accept the Senate bill in the
interest of completing this work during
this session,” Elizabeth Parker, NNA’s
government relations chairman and
co-publisher of Recorder Community
Newspapers, Stirling, N.J., said. “The
provisions in the bill are the result of
much collaboration among the stakeholders, the government and the leaders
in both House and Senate. We believe
this bill puts a new signpost before
the American public reminding all of
us that the government is us, and we
have not only a right but an obligation
to know what it is doing.”
Tidwell and Parker thanked Claudia
James of the Podesta Group for her
legislative guidance and members of
NNA’s Congressional Action Team for
their three years of work on the bill
as they explained its importance to
potential sponsors. They also express
appreciation to Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.,
and Robert Bennett, R-Utah, for their
work in accommodating the concerns
of federal agencies so that a bipartisan
bill could reach the Senate floor.
Ask senators to support open government bill
The Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) was enacted over 40 years ago to
affirmatively convey that a democratic
government must itself be governed by
a presumption of openness. However,
since its inception, FOIA has been
plagued by delay, inefficiency and, at
times, outright destruction of information.
S.849, the Open Government Act of
2007, is the first major overhaul of FOIA
in a decade. With bipartisan support by
sponsors Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, and
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, this bill will
be a more effective tool for the media and
citizens to access government information.S.849 advances and strengthens the
Freedom of Information Act in several
ways, as follows:
•Creates an ombudsman office. An impartial aide to help citizens, journalists,
educators and researchers to obtain
information faster and offer guidance
to requesters with fact-finding reviews
and non-binding opinions. Creating this
office has been the special focus of the
National Newspaper Association.
•Assigns a tracking number to
every request. An individual tracking number will enable requesters to
see exactly where a release stands in
processing and will enable agencies to
provide more accurate status reports
on requests to the individual requester
and to Congress.
•Increases penalties for agencies that
fail to respond within 20 days. Agency
backlogs continue to grow, with some
requests taking years or even decades
to be processed, and agencies need to
be held responsible.
•Strengthens litigants’ ability to
recover attorneys’ fees. If a requester
has to sue to obtain records, and wins,
he should be able to recover the costs
of pursuing litigation.
Why support the Open Government
Act of 2007:
•Provide an alternative to litigation,
through the ombudsman office, for the
vast majority of requesters who have
neither the means nor the time to sue
the federal government.
•Decrease the length of time required
to obtain information and promote more
openness in government.
•Require agencies to be held accountable for their statutory obligations to
provide requesters information on the
status of their request and punish the
agency for non-compliance.
•Encourage the right of access to
public information by no longer penalizing those who do have the means to
litigate.
Please direct any questions to Sara
DeForge, NNA government relations
manager, at sara@americanpresswor
ks.com or (703) 465.8808.
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
4
SEPTEMBER 2007
CMYK
Saluting Seigenthaler, First Amendment champion
John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center, Nashville, wasn’t really present at the
signing of the Declaration of Independence.
But there he seems to be, courtesy of some
computer-age graphic magic, standing with the
Founders of the Republic in a reproduction of
a mural by painter John Trumbull that now
hangs in his office, a tongue-in-cheek gift from
his colleagues.
But as friends, family and coworkers marked his
80th birthday on July 27, it occurs to me that we
all might be better off in terms of our freedoms if
he had been there. No doubt he would have added
his own strong voice to that of Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Franklin and others.
Seigenthaler’s career has included turns as
newspaper reporter, editor and publisher, a stint
in the Kennedy administration that forever linked
him with the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s,
and lifelong duty as a defender of the five freedoms
protected by the First Amendment.
More than five decades ago, he began writing
and editing newspaper stories that defended
and extended the public’s right to know what its
government officials in Nashville were doing.
Twenty-five years ago, he was the first editorial
page director of USA TODAY, creating a unique,
multi-faceted forum.
In a column published over the July 4 holiday
weekend, he took some high-profile congressional
figures to task for proposing a revival of the Fairness Doctrine for broadcasters. He said, “It has
nothing to do with fairness. It is intended only to
muzzle right-wing talk-radio hosts who are chronically critical of Democrats in Congress.”
And just last week he spoke in Washington, D.C.
to American Press Institute attendees, the latest
in a string of API sessions that began 10 years ago
when he was a youthful 70, educating them about
our basic freedoms.
I should point out that I work at the center that
Seigenthaler founded in 1991. Further, I was a
colleague of his when USA TODAY was getting
started, though we didn’t directly work together.
Be that as it may, Seigenthaler’s place in the First
Amendment pantheon stands firm with
or without any accolades from me.
Just ask the more than 6,000 journalists and news executives who have
heard him speak at those API sessions
(with Ken Paulson, USA TODAY editor).
After a multimedia presentation that
combines information, competition
and wit, those thousands who touch
the lives of millions have come away
with greater appreciation of the role
of a free press in American life…and
likely with a new bounce in their free
press footsteps as well.
Ask student audiences from Florida to
Nebraska to Tennessee to Pennsylvania
to South Dakota and beyond, all places
where he has spoken about the unique
amendment that has no equal elsewhere
INSIDE
THE
FIRST
AMENDMENT
Gene Policinski
on the globe.
Venture into cyberspace, where
Seigenthaler’s First Amendment
concerns focus on a venture called
Wikipedia, and where, after a widely
read newspaper column he wrote about
false statements posted about him on
the site, an international debate began
about such “self-correcting” information sources.
Ask students from Florida, and one
inspiring but not-so-youthful former
Freedom Rider accompanying them,
who sat down on a recent afternoon in
Nashville to hear Seigenthaler—who
in 1961 during a temporary switch from
newspapers was representing President
John F. Kennedy in talks with the Alabama governor—tell of being knocked
unconscious in Montgomery, Ala. as he tried to
defend two young women from a mob attacking
civil rights workers.
Or ask the hundreds of people who last fall
packed a lecture hall at the Seigenthaler Center,
on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville,
to hear him talk about how and why we have and
need the protection of those 45 words that begin
with “Congress shall make no law....”
There’s a great deal of debate around First
Amendment issues today. What is the proper
balance of religion and secularism in public
life? What role does government have, if any, in
regulating the content of television programs and
movies? What may we say aloud and in print during
wartime? How free or controlled should student
voices be? How do we balance our right to support
candidates by writing a check vs. the need to keep
“big money” from corrupting politics?
As he and we celebrate his first 80 years, it’s worth
noting what Seigenthaler had to say on Dec. 15,
1991 (the 200th anniversary of the ratification of
the Bill of Rights) at the First Amendment Center
dedication: “Freedom of expression is never safe,
never secure, but always in the process of being
made safe and secure.”
Those words are on the wall of the center that
bears his name. They’re also a great challenge
to the rest of us: to get as involved in saving and
securing our liberties as he is.
GENE POLICINSKI is vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, 1101
Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22209. Web: firstamendmentcenter.org. E-mail: [email protected].
Ellen Leifeld, publisher of The Tennessean,
Nashville, presents John Seigenthaler an
oversized card signed by the newspaper’s
staffers. More than 400 people celebrated
his 80th birthday July 27 at the Freedom
Forum First Amendment Center on Vanderbilt
University campus in Nashville. Seigenthaler
is chairman emeritus of The Tennessean.
BILLY KINGSLEY | THE TENNESSEAN, NASHVILLE
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The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
5
OBITUARIES
David Byrd
Printer
David Byrd, an employee of The
Leader, Covington, died March 6 in
Atoka. He was 58.
Employed at The Leader for 23 years,
he had the longest current record of
service. He worked in the commercial
printing department. Before that,
he worked with Jack Forbess, also a
former Leader employee, in the printing business. The two then joined the
newspaper.
He leaves his mother, Dorothy Byrd,
and brothers, Robert and Charles Ed
Byrd.
Walter Dawson
of his life all mentioned the same thing
when remembering Dawson.
“He had a keen sense of humor,”
former newspaper colleague Tim
Jordan said.
Added Cherry, “He was so funny. He
had this dry wit.”
Former newspaper colleague Russ Fly
remembered one of Dawson’s typical
pranks.
“He had a sly, almost impish sense of
humor. He once confided to me that he
liked to start rumors about himself just
to see how they’d get twisted by the time
they got back to him,” Fly said.
Dawson also leaves three daughters,
Cayce Pappas, Sarah Dawson and
Charlie Hausen, all of Memphis; father,
Walter Dawson II of Summerville, S.C.;
and four grandsons.
Music critic
Van Pritchartt
BY JODY CALLAHAN
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis
Publisher
Former newspaperman Walter Dawson was remembered by a friend as
having two sides—one that came out
at night, the other in the day.
“As long as I’ve known Walter, he had
a fascination with the dark side of life,”
said Eddie Tucker, a friend of more
than 40 years.
“At night, he would spend time with
his biker friends. And the next day,
he’d put on a suit and go to work in the
corporate world,” Tucker said, remembering another story involving friends
of Dawson’s with names like “Tommy
the Pimp” and “Rubber Legs.”
Dawson, a former music critic and editor for The Commercial Appeal, died of
a heart attack July 30. He was 59.
“He was very complicated, very
complex,” Tucker added. “When I first
met Walter in 1966, he had a hobby of
cutting out words from magazines and
arranging them on pieces of driftwood
to create poetry.”
His wife of 19 years, Roslyn White,
endorsed that description.
“He was brilliant. With that kind of
intelligence, you examine issues deeper
than other people do,” she said. “So yes,
he was a very complex and complicated
man. I consider that a compliment, and
that’s why I loved him,” she said. “He
was a brilliant and beautiful man.”
Dawson began his journalism career
at The Commercial Appeal in 1968,
eventually becoming the newspaper’s
music critic. During that time, he covered memorable shows by the Rolling
Stones and wrote about the death of
Elvis, among numerous experiences. He
then moved on to become an editor in the
business and metro departments.
Dawson left in 1994 to become managing editor of California’s Monterey
County Herald. He and his family returned to Memphis in 1999, and Dawson
began working for First Tennessee 2000.
He remained there until his death.
“He was the most lovable curmudgeon
you’d ever want to meet. He rubbed some
people the wrong way, but he touched
so many people,” First Tennessee colleague Kim Cherry said.
People who knew him at every stage
BY CLAY BAILEY
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis
Van Pritchartt Jr.
always wanted to be
a newspaperman,
and he lived his vocation with passion
around the clock to
the very end.
“He always had
his yellow tablets,
Pritchartt
was always thinking about things and scribbling things
down,” his wife, Meredith Gotten
Pritchartt, said.
Pritchartt died June 15 after a long
illness. He was 80.
Pritchartt rose from the reporting ranks to leadership roles at two
newspapers in Shelby County. He was
managing editor of the old Memphis
Press-Scimitar when it closed in 1983.
The University of Virginia alum took
over The Collierville Herald five years
later, fulfilling his lifelong dream to
have his own newspaper. He remained
that newspaper’s editor and publisher
until his death.
“Printer’s ink was in his blood,” Mrs.
Pritchartt said. “That was the main
thing he cared about, getting out the
home edition.”
Pritchartt’s love of journalism
stretched to his freshman year at
Southwestern (now Rhodes College)
when he became editor of the campus
newspaper. After service in the Army,
Pritchartt attended Virginia Tech and
was named editor of that school’s
newspaper, his wife said.
Pritchartt once wrote a column in the
Herald about the Press-Scimitar during
“the days of manual typewriters, hot
metal and Linotype machines; before
the days of the laptops, the Internet,
camera phones and all the electronic
gadgets today’s reporters have.”
The newsroom, he wrote, was “filled
with tough, hard-hitting reporters
and editors, insatiable for the next
big story.”
It was that passion to gather the news,
and get it to readers every day that drove
Pritchartt.
“Van was as focused a person as I’ve
ever worked with,” said Vince Vawter,
retired publisher of the Evansville
(Ind.) Courier & Press and a former
Tennessee newspaperman, who worked
with Pritchartt at the Press-Scimitar
from 1970 to 1983. Vawter recalled a
day when several newsroom employees invited Pritchartt to join them
for lunch, but he had to prepare for a
television show.
“Thirty minutes later Van jumped up
and ran out the door with his bundle of
papers,” Vawter recalled. “His lunch
was untouched. Van always seemed to
be on a mission.”
Tom Stone, who was the Press-Scimitar’s city hall reporter for four years
when Pritchartt was city editor, added:
“He was driven by his craft.”
That also extended to the areas he
covered. Collierville town administrator James Lewellen recalled that there
were a few times he called Pritchartt to
talk about the newsman’s take on an
issue. Lewellen said the disagreements
were always on a professional level and
never became personal.
“Van was a passionate advocate for
the town of Collierville,” Lewellen said.
“He was passionate about the role of the
press in the community.
“...What he believed in, he believed
in passionately.”
In addition to his wife, Pritchartt
leaves two daughters, Wendy P. Ansbro
and Mary P. Muscari, both of Memphis;
a son, Alexander V. Pritchartt III of
Stamford, Conn.; and four grandchildren.
Gulf Shores, Ala.; nine grandchildren;
and two great-grandchildren.
Rail’s philanthropic endeavors
included founding the Academic
Awards Banquet for the eight schools
in McNairy County held for the past 21
years, an annual baseball tournament
in McNairy County to fund uniforms
and equipment for both high school
baseball teams now in its 23rd year, as
well as the Warm the Children Fund to
provide clothing for needy children in
the community.
He was a member of the East View
Church of Christ in Selmer and Main
Street Church of Christ in Mt. Pleasant.
A long time member of the Tennessee
Press Association, he served on the TPA
Foundation Board. He was a member
of various boards in the community,
as well as the National Newspaper Association; Rotary Club in Selmer, which
cited him as Citizen of the Year; and the
former Lions Club in Mt. Pleasant.
Friends can contact the family at
311 Florida Ave., Mt. Pleasant, Tenn.
38474.
No-brainer
“It is impossible for citizens to engage
in responsible political debate if they
are denied access to critical information about the actions of elected
officials.”
Geoffrey R. Stone
Law professor, University
of Chicago, 2004
NOTICE
October is the
month in which
the U.S. Postal
Service requires
that periodicals
run their annual
Statements of
Ownership.
To download
Form 3526, go to
www.usps.com/
forms/
periodicals.htm.
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
12
William J. Rail
Newspaper owner
William Joseph
(Bill) Rail, 77, longtime Tennessee
newspaper man,
died Aug. 14 in his
home in Mt. Pleasant.
Born in Mt. Pleasant, he was a dual
Rail
resident of that
community and
Selmer.
He graduated from Hay Long High
School in 1950 and started his career in
the newspaper industry after attending
the Nashville School of Printing to become a Linotype operator. He returned
to Mt. Pleasant after brief employment
in Lexington, Ky.
He spent 24 years working and eventually publishing the Mt. Pleasant
Record. In 1976 he moved to Selmer
and bought McNairy Publishing Co.,
publisher of the Independent Appeal
and Adamsville News.
Bill was a quiet man with a strong wit
and charm. He was passionate about
people and fascinated by their stories.
He cherished his friends and family. Till
the end, he never lost his sense of humor
and positive attitude. He was preceded
in death by a daughter, Deborah Rail
Boshers of Mt. Pleasant. He leaves his
wife, Betty Rone Rail; a daughter, Janet
Rail of Selmer; a son, William Rail of
2008
Tennessee
Newspaper
Directory
Advertising opportunities
Contact: Barry Jarrell
TPS advertising director
(865) 584-5761, ext. 108
SEPTEMBER 2007
One-armed paper-hanger editor-designer
Tennessee Press Association officers and directors 2007-08
PRESIDENT
Pauline D. Sherrer
Crossville Chronicle
DIRECTOR
District 5
Hugh Jones
Shelbyville TimesGazette
VICE PRESIDENT
NON-DAILIES
Victor Parkins
The Milan MirrorExchange
VICE PRESIDENT
DAILIES
Tom Griscom
Chattanooga Times
Free Press
DIRECTOR
District 6
Ellen Leifeld
The Tennessean
Nashville
TREASURER
Bill Williams
The Paris
Post-Intelligencer
DIRECTOR
District 7
John Finney
Buffalo River Review
Linden
DIRECTOR
District 1
Art Powers
Johnson City Press
DIRECTOR
District 8
Brad Franklin
The Lexington Progress
DIRECTOR
District 2
Kevin Burcham
News-Herald
Lenoir City
DIRECTOR
District 3
Tom Overton
Advocate and Democrat
Sweetwater
DIRECTOR
District 10
Eric Barnes
The Daily News
Memphis
DIRECTOR
District 9
Joel Washburn
Dresden Enterprise
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
DIRECTOR
District 4
Linn Hudson
LaFollette Press
DIRECTOR
At large
Steve Lake
Pulaski Citizen
CMYK
Tennessee Press Service officers and directors 2007-08
(Part 1)
•Create libraries. A master library of all eleAnyone who has ever hung wallpaper will imments is a must. But there also are items you’ll
mediately appreciate the meaning of the phrase
want to place in separate libraries, such as sports
“Busy as a one-armed paper-hanger.”
logos and business charts. The more, the betAnd the phrase certainly describes most smallter—provided you insist that the master library
newspaper editors I’ve met. They are editors.
be kept up to date.
Reporters. Managers. Designers. Receptionists.
•Keep it simple. Your design of page one doesn’t
Photographers. IT specialists. Plate makers. Fixers
need to be perfect—it just needs to be easy to folof copy machines. Brewers of coffee. Watchdogs.
low. There’s no need to do and redo and rethink
Servants of the public.
and rework. Use what you know works for your
BY
Along with all of that, they get to comfort the
readers.
afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Oh…and
•Don’t sweat the small stuff. Kick out the
DESIGN
empty the trash. And bring in the dog. And put
smaller inside pages quickly. Get them out of the
out the cat.
Ed Henninger way so you have the time you’ll need to devote
It’s no wonder they have little time to pay attento page one.
tion to the nuances of design. And finesse?
•Copy and paste. If you’re missing an eleNot a chance.
ment from your library or style sheets, go to
Perhaps some of the following suggestions
a page where you recently used that element
will help as you commit the act of design:
and copy and paste it to your page. No need
•Use keyboard shortcuts. They were creto recreate the element when you’ve already
ated to help you, and you can learn them as
got it in your files.
you go. Sure, you’re going to fumble once in a
Some of these are simple steps. Elementary.
while and have to revert to using the mouse.
Perhaps so, but they can save you critical time
But over the long haul, keyboard shortcuts
when you’re up against deadline. And it’s a
give you speed and power over your paginafact of life for small newspaper editors that
tion program.
you’re always up against deadline.
•Create templates. The more, the bet- For the one-armed paperter—your page one template can carry design hanger designer-editor, it IF THIS COLUMN has been helpful, you’ll
items (the nameplate, the UPC code, the index, seems there’s a deadline find more help in Ed’s new book, Henninger on
etc.) that you won’t need on an inside page. On every hour.
Design. Find out more about it by visiting Ed’s
the inside pages, you’d place a folio, a page
Web site: www.henningerconsulting.com.
label, a standing head, etc.
•Create style sheets. These are especially critical to your ED HENNINGER is an independent newspaper
typography, but you can also create object styles (such as a consultant and the director of Henninger Consulting,
photo frame with runaround) in InDesign. This shouldn’t offering comprehensive newspaper design services
take you more than a spare hour or two. But then, you gotta including redesigns, workshops, training and evaluations.
create a spare hour or two. (More on that next month in “The E-mail: [email protected]. On the Web: www.
one-armed paper-hanger editor-designer Part 2).”
henningerconsulting.com. Phone: (803) 327-3322.
TRACKS
PRESIDENT
Dale C. Gentry
The Standard
Banner
Jefferson City
DIRECTOR
W.R. (Ron) Fryar
American Hometown
Publishing
Franklin
VICE PRESIDENT
Pauline D. Sherrer
Crossville Chronicle
DIRECTOR
Bob Parkins
The Milan
Mirror-Exchange
DIRECTOR
Mike Pirtle
Murfreesboro
DIRECTOR
Michael Williams
The Paris
Post-Intelligencer
Tennessee Press Association Foundation officers and trustees 2007-08
PRESIDENT
W.R. (Ron) Fryar
American Hometown
Publishing
Franklin
Joe Albrecht, Albrecht Newspapers, Cookeville
Bob Atkins, Hendersonville
Jim Charlet, Brentwood
David Critchlow Jr., Union City Daily Messenger
R. Jack Fishman, Citizen Tribune, Morristown
R. Michael Fishman, Citizen Tribune, Morristown
Dale C. Gentry, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City
Ed Graves, The Jackson Sun
Sam Hatcher, The Wilson Post, Lebanon
Tom Hill, Oak Ridge
Douglas A. Horne, Knoxville
VICE PRESIDENT
Gregg K. Jones
The Greeneville Sun
Gregg K. Jones, The Greeneville Sun
John M. Jones Jr., The Greeneville Sun
John M. Jones Sr., The Greeneville Sun
Sam D. Kennedy, Kennedy Newspapers, Columbia
Hershel Lake, Pulaski Publishing
Steve Lake, Pulaski Citizen
Kelly Leiter, Knoxville
Bob Parkins, The Milan Mirror-Exchange
Mike Pirtle, Murfreesboro
Walter T. Pulliam, Knoxville
Janet Rail, Independent Appeal, Selmer
GENERAL COUNSEL
Richard L. Hollow
Knoxville
Darrell G. Richardson, The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge
Dennis Richardson, Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon
Pauline D. Sherrer, Crossville Chronicle
Bill Shuster, Cookeville
Henry A. Stokes, Germantown
Jim Thompson, The Courier, Savannah
Joel Washburn, Dresden Enterprise
F. Gene Washer, The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville
Scott Whaley, Chester County Independent, Henderson
George T. Whitley, Covington
Bill Williams, Paris
H-C has new managing editor
Buddy Pearson
has been named
managing editor of
the Herald-Citizen,
Cookeville. He succeeds Wes Swietek,
who held the position for just over
two years.
Pearson
The announcement was made by
Publisher Mike DeLapp in a meeting
of the editorial staff.
Pearson has been sports editor for the
past seven years and has won several top
awards for sports writing and editing.
Before taking the sports editor position, he worked in the sports information office at Tennessee Technological
University, Cookeville, and before that
was director of media relations at
Carson-Newman College in Jefferson
City.
Pearson was born in Cahokia, Ill. near
St. Louis. When his father retired from
Ford Motor Co. in St. Louis, the family
moved to West Tennessee, where he attended Hardin County High School and
later graduated from Union University
in Jackson. He earned a master’s degree
at the University of Tennessee.
He and his wife, Misty, have two
children, Jacob, 13, a student at Avery
Trace Middle School, and Savannah, 5,
a student at Capshaw Elementary.
On being named editor, Pearson
addressed the newsroom staff, saying
he was “proud and excited” about his
new duties and pledging to work hard
to produce a quality newspaper and to
serve this community.
Commenting today, Pearson said,
“After working in sports in some form
or fashion for the past 17 years, I feel this
is a great career opportunity. I feel that
I have accomplished a lot the past seven
and a half years at the Herald-Citizen,
and this will be a new challenge. I look
forward to giving the same enthusiasm
and drive as the managing editor that I
have as the sports editor.
“I’m looking forward to working
closely with everyone in the newsroom.
I think we have a good blend of youth
and experience and we have all the potential to be one of the best newspapers
in the state. Our goal is to make the
Herald-Citizen a newspaper that this
community can be proud of.”
Pearson said he will focus on local
news coverage.
(Adapted from a story
by Mary Jo Denton,
Herald-Citizen, Cookeville,
Aug. 14, 2007)
|
Bryan Crosslin has joined the
Shelbyville Times-Gazette as an advertising sales executive. He is a Shelbyville
native and has been employed in sales
for more than 30 years.
|
The newest staff member at the
Macon County Chronicle, Lafayette,
is Dana Long. She graduated from
Western Kentucky University with a
double major in photojournalism and
history.
|
Tom Spargur has been named
publisher of the Claiborne Progress,
a weekly in Tazewell.
Previously, Spargur served as publisher of five Womack Publishing Co.
weeklies in North Carolina and was
the corporate advertising director for
Womack properties.
He succeeds Gary Lawrence, who
will remain chief operating officer
of Heartland Publications’ southern
division.
It’s a staple
“The First Amendment is not a
technicality for regulators to maneuver around; it embodies fundamental
values that must be honored even if
at times the result is disagreeable to
many.”
Laurence H. Winter
Law professor, Arizona State, 2004
11
TRACKS
Commercial Appeal names
two associate publishers
The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis,
an E.W. Scripps
Co. newspaper, has
named two new associate publishers
in suburban bureaus.
RichardMathauer
Mathauer
has been hired as associate publisher of the DeSoto Appeal
in north Mississippi, while Lucianne
Shoffner has been promoted to associate
publisher of the Millington & Tipton
Appeal office north of Memphis.
Mathauer worked as director of advertising for the Memphis Business Journal prior to this appointment. He has
more than 25 years of daily newspaper
experience, having worked in all phases
of advertising management with The
McClatchy Co., St. Louis Suburban
Journals, The New
York Times Co. and
Harte-Hanks Direct
Marketing (formerly
Harte-Hanks Newspapers). Mathauer
attended Miami University in Ohio.
Shoffner worked
Shoffner
on the national advertising desk for The Commercial
Appeal before her new assignment. She
has worked in the newspaper industry
14 years, including stints with Western
Newspaper Group, Gannett and an
independent company.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in
business administration/marketing
and a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Southeast Missouri
State University.
AHP names Leader publisher
Dale Bean has
been named as the
new publisher of
The Leader, Covington.
This is a great
community, and I
look forward to getting involved with
Bean
it,” said Bean.
He replaces Jay Albrecht, who was
publisher of the paper for five years.
Albrecht’s last day was July 6.
Bean comes to Tipton County from
northern California, where he served
as publisher for four newspapers in that
area. They also printed a free-distribution product featuring advertising.
Bean has been in the newspaper business for 27 years.
“We are excited to have him on board,”
said W.R. (Ron) Fryar, vice president of
operations for American Hometown
Publishing (AHP), Franklin, the group
that owns The Leader and 11 other
newspapers.
“Dale brings a lot of experience to
the paper,” said Fryar. “We think he
will bring a lot to the table for The
Leader.”
Bean said he has known Fryar for
many years and believes the philosophy
of American Hometown Publishing fits
his own philosophy. And that is keeping
community newspapers just that, with
the sole focus to serve the area and its
people.
“I believe in helping to promote a
growing and prosperous community,”
said Bean.
ETSPJ elects 2007-08 officers
Members of the East Tennessee
Society of Professional Journalists
have elected new officers and board
members.
Serving for 2007-08 are the following:
John Huotari, reporter at The Oak
Ridger, Oak Ridge, president; Jean Ash,
former radio journalist and current
tour director, first vice president/Front
Page Follies; Mia Rhodarmer, editor
of the Monroe County Advocate &
Democrat, Sweetwater, second vice
president/Golden Press Card Awards;
Elenora Edwards, The Tennessee Press
managing editor, secretary; Dorothy
Bowles, University of Tennessee
journalism professor, treasurer; John
Becker, WBIR-TV News anchor, membership chairman; Christine Jessel,
communications specialist for the Girl
Scouts of Tanasi Council, program
chairman; and Ed Hooper, Lakeway
Publications, Morristown, editor, progam co-chairman.
All except Becker have previously
served on the board.
Board members at-large are Kara
Covington, The Daily Times, Maryville,
assistant news editor; Amanda Greever,
The Daily Times, Maryville, copy
editor; J.J. Stambaugh, News Sentinel,
Knoxville, staff writer; and Georgiana
Vines, News Sentinel, Knoxville, political columnist.
Vines previously served in SPJ leadership positions, including national
president. ETSPJ’s immediate past
president is Hooper.
Adina Chumley, Ackermann Public
Relations, Knoxville, was elected to
serve as board member ex-officio.
The new board terms began Aug. 1.
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
6
SEPTEMBER 2007
President’s Award: ‘An editor never too busy’
CMYK
BY JIM CHARLET
Brentwood
For those watching, it was clear
she didn’t see it
coming.
Henry Stokes, immediate past president of TPA, successfully retained
the “cover” of his
Charlet
second President’s
Award presented July 20 in Nashville
to the longtime managing editor of The
Tennessee Press.
Elenora Easterly Edwards kept pushing her pen to paper, following Stokes’
comments, and aiming her Nikon at
him.
“This is an editor, who…works largely
outside the limelight, but with pressures
for deadlines, accuracy and compelling
copy as great as any of us face,” said
Stokes. “It is a one-person show who
shows us what can be done, edition
after edition.
“This is an editor who is never too busy
to answer a request—be it a single fact,
a previous article, or a bit of opinion
drawn from experience and expertise,”
he continued. “Wonder who he’s talking
about?” Edwards asked herself.
“This person brings a friendly and
enthusiastic attitude into TPA gatherings—reminding us all that this
serious business is, and always should
be—FUN,” said Stokes.
And Stokes said his second President’s
Award was going to someone whose
tireless TPA work makes it possible for
members “…to understand TPA activi-
ties, the people who lead and help us,
and the issues we deal with.
“This editor attends nearly every TPA
event, and has for many years,” said
Stokes. That’s when the OOPS Factor
hit the pen and paper Edwards held, and
the room began to swirl. Something like
“flabbergasted” comes to mind.
Edwards just hit the quarter century
mark as a Tennessee newspaper editor.
She’s been the ME of The Tennessee
Press since 1991, and spent the 1971-1981
decade as news editor of the Clinton
Courier-News working for the iconic
Horace Wells.
She fondly recalls her time working with Wells, a Newspaper Hall of
Famer who spent a decade sharing
the copy desk with Percy Priest and
Coleman Harwell at The Nashville
Tennessean.
Among other things, Wells taught
Edwards how to prospect the public
notices for leads on news stories.
As the major documenter for the
Tennessee newspaper profession, this
64-year-old widow and mom to son Ben
operates as the “one-person band,”
writing most all news copy, all the
headlines and editing every monthly
tabloid page of the TPA house organ
from her Clinton home. Last month’s
40-page edition featuring the General
Excellence Awards is one testimony
to her work.
She remains in “elbow contact”
almost daily by e-mail and phone with
TPA management and staffers, and provides encouraging words and deadline
reminders to whoever is the current
TPA president, as he or she wrestles
with writing the monthly “Your Presid-
VICTOR PARKINS | THE MILAN MIRROR-EXCHANGE
Henry Stokes and Elenora Edwards with her President’s Award
of information issues were served up
ing Reporter” column.
Born Dec. 23, 1942, she is the younger as the main course, with food coming
daughter of Newspaper Hall of Famer second.
Edwards began her newspaper
Guy Easterly and his wife, Lucile. Easterly held longtime leadership positions career at age 8 as a news hawk selling
with the National Editorial Association her family newspaper, The LaFollette
and was a founder of the national Press, for a nickel apiece. Her dad was
Freedom of Information Center at the editor and publisher, and her mom was
University of Missouri.
society editor.
At the Easterly dinner table, it was
She later graduated to the position
legendary that lessons on freedom of “volunteer collator,” assembling
receipt books and football programs
in the newspaper’s commercial printing shop. “Painting the pink goo on
scratch pads was fun but messy,” she
recalls. She also took personal items by
phone and transcribed them for editing.
“Since the Press was a family business,
my sister, Helen Anne, worked on the
paper too,” Edwards said. Helen Anne
Easterly, who lives in New York City, is
a poet and a professor of English and
philosophy at Parsons School of Design,
part of the New School University in
Manhattan, and at The Pratt Institute
in Brooklyn.
At Maryville College where Edwards
received a B.A. degree in English, she
was editor of The Highland Echo, and
at the University of Missouri School
of Journalism, she worked on The
Missouri Press while pursuing graduate
studies. Freedom of information issues
were her study focus.
A 36-year member of the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists,
she serves as secretary.
Throughout her 25-year career as a
newspaper editor, Elenora Edwards has
retained an abiding enthusiasm about
the Tennessee newspaper industry, its
people and the “family newspaper lessons” she learned about life.
“Reporting stories about Tennessee
newspaper people is the most fun anyone
can have,” she opines. And she’s never
too busy for that.
JIM CHARLET is retired editor and
publisher of the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, and former copy editor and makeup
editor at The Atlanta Constitution.
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
7
President’s Award: ‘Mr. Positive as a Worker Bee’
BY JIM CHARLET
Brentwood
Anybody who’s
seen Michael Williams of The Paris
Post-Intelligencer
lately must wonder what’s juicing
his Wheaties box.
But then if you’ve
known Michael very
Charlet
long at all, you know
for sure it’s the same old Michael.
Because Michael’s Wheaties box has
always been stoked with an unlimited
supply of positive attitude, a high-octane smile, and a laughter that starts at
his little toe and goes all the way up.
Outgoing TPA president Henry Stokes
focused his laser beam on Michael Williams in Nashville on July 20, when he
added one of his two President’s Award
to the Michael Williams Wheaties box
in Henry County.
Stokes homed in on what he described
as Williams’ “…wonderful approachability and enthusiastic, bubbly manner” that Williams showed as chairman of the Freedom of Information
Committee in the Stokes tenure as TPA
president.
When the Tennessee Legislature
began jiggering around with reducing
government transparency in open meetings and open records laws, Williams led
the TPA defensive line with quick draw
editorials challenging those efforts.
And he shared them in an e-mail blast
to his fellow committee members.
That’s the kind of “leadership and
worker bee role” Stokes felt worthy
of honor. And he described Williams’
efforts as “…some of TPA’s most important and difficult work.”
Williams’ work in a dual role of
providing effective liaison with the Tennessee Coalition of Open Government
also drew Stokes’ praise.
He said Williams “…promotes his
newspaper’s mission to community,
and its journalistic integrity, while
maintaining the great legacy of a
newspaper family’s dedication over
several generations.”
That’s a heady observation from a
fellow newspaper editor at the pinnacle
of his 42-year career.
He said Williams “…promotes his
newspaper’s mission to community,
and its journalistic integrity, while
maintaining the great legacy of a
newspaper family’s dedication over
several generations.”
Michael Williams is no “Johnny Come
Lately” to Tennessee newspapers. He is
the fourth generation of editor-publishers of the Williams family at The Paris
P-I, so he comes honestly to the values
of family newspapers.
Born April 25, 1959 (one month before
I finished high school), Michael graduated Henry County High School, class
of 1977, then chased his dad’s shadow
to Murray State University where he
graduated class of 1981.
After college, the crime beat of The
Nashville Tennessean was his first
training stop.
There he learned writing and reporting at the knee of such taskmasters as
Jimmy Carnahan and Herman Eskew
Michael Williams with his President’s Award
from 1981 through 1982, when he became
news editor at The LaFollette Press for
the next two years.
In 1984, he returned to The Paris
ELENORA E. EDWARDS | TPS
Post-Intelligencer, making the rounds
of every pre-press and post-press
department until he was named editor in 1992
In 1999, he assumed the additional
role of publisher upon retirement of
his father, Bill Williams.
In addition to being the 2005-07 FOI
Committee chairman, Williams was
District 9 TPA director in 1993-95 and
was a member of the Public Notice
Committee in 2006. He has been a director of the Tennessee Press Service,
the TPA advertising sales arm, each
year since 2004.
Williams is a member of the directing board of the Paris-Henry County
Chamber of Commerce and a local
coordinator of the county Imagination
Library Program.
On weekends, he volunteers as the fifth
and sixth grade Bible class teacher at
East Wood Church of Christ in Paris.
Williams and his wife, Evonne, have
three children, Daniel, a Freed-Hardeman University student with plans to
become the fifth generation editor-publisher in the Williams family; daughter,
Katie, 20, who attends an equestrian
training center; and son Matthew, 12, a
seventh grader. Evonne Williams is the
newspaper’s business manager.
In Stokes’ commendation remarks, he
noted, “…Michael Williams has given
time and effort faithfully, to some of
TPA’s most important and difficult
work.” But if you’re Michael Williams
of The Paris Post-Intelligencer, you’re
a climber by nature, so all this is no
hill for you.
JIM CHARLET is retired editor and
publisher of the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, and copy editor and makeup editor at
The Atlanta Constitution.
We cannot take public notices for granted
ENGRAVINGS
Bowles cited by SPLC
Dorothy Bowles, journalism professor
in the UT School of Journalism and
Electronic Media, Knoxville, received
special recognition at a celebration dinner in June at the National Press Club
in Washington, D.C. The recognition
came for Bowles’ fund-raising work and
personal financial contribution to help
the Student Press Law Center (SPLC)
establish a $3.75 million endowment.
“I believe the work of the SPLC is
extremely important in instilling
First Amendment values in future
generations of American citizens
and especially those who will become
journalists,” Bowles said.
“The organization has made great
strides over the years since the early
‘80s when a handful of us—mostly
university teachers and publications
directors—met during the Christmas
holidays one year to reorganize and
‘rescue’ the fledgling center,” Bowles
recalled. “Since then, the Center has
come to the rescue of hundreds of
university and high school student
publications that have needed legal
assistance, often because their school
administrators had no understanding
or appreciation of
First Amendment
guarantees.
“In addition to providing aid in legal
battles, the organization works through
its publications,
Web site and speakBowles
ing engagements to
educate youths and
adults about the importance of freedom
of expression,” Bowles said.
For most of its history the SPLC has
lived hand-to-mouth, barely existing on
magazine subscriptions, membership
fees and contributions to support a
small, overworked staff and depending heavily on its volunteer board of
directors, Bowles pointed out.
“With this endowment fund now in
place, the future of the organization
should be secure indefinitely and can
continue to do its valuable work,”
Bowles said.
Bowles served on the SPLC board
of directors for 18 years and is now
a member of its advisory board. She
serves on the board of Tennessee Co-
alition for Open Government and has
been active with the Tennessee Press
Association.
“For the first time, we can be certain
that the Student Press Law Center is
here to stay,” said Eric Newton, vice
president, journalism programs for
the Knight Foundation. “From now on,
someone will always be there to stand
up for the rights of student journalists,
to push for student media in all its
wondrous forms, to show tomorrow’s
citizens that we people really do believe
in a free and open society.”
Recognizing the importance of
student free speech and the role of
press freedom in our nation, in 2003
the Knight Foundation issued the
SPLC a challenge grant to create the
Tomorrow’s Voices endowment fund.
As of Dec. 31, 2006, the SPLC met this
challenge by raising $2.5 million in gifts
and pledges, which the Knight Foundation will match with $1.25 million.
Students, teachers, foundations, news
media organizations and many others
committed to the future of the First
Amendment stepped to up to support
the SPLC in this campaign.
THSPA Teacher of the Year Award
named in honor of Hufford
Bonnie Hufford,
an instructor of
journalism at the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville,
was honored at the
Tennessee High
School Press Association Conference
Hufford
in Nashville for 21
years of service as THSPA director and
her devotion to scholastic journalism.
The THSPA Teacher of the Year
Award, given annually to the high
school instructor who receives the
honor, now will be referred to as the
Bonnie Hufford THSPA Teacher of the
Year Award. “Last spring, (Bonnie)
asked me if I would take over (THSPA
leadership)...I thought it would be nice
to recognize her in some way, so I came
up with the idea of naming our teacher
of the year after her,” said H.L. Hall,
executive director of THSPA.
Hufford was unable to attend the
conference because of a case of accute
bronchitis, but Jim Miller, a UT doctoral
student, accepted the award. “Bonnie
has been the driving force behind the
Tennessee High School Press Association for many years. She is truly an advocate for scholastic journalism in the
state, and the award presented to her is
much deserved,” Miller said.
Hufford said, “I was really excited.
I knew they were doing something
to honor me, but I had no idea it was
this.”
Hufford earned a bachelor’s degree
and a master’s in education from
Bowling Green State University. She
teaches editing, writing, graphics and
international communications.
“I have never known anyone as enthusiastic and as full of life as Bonnie,” Hall
said. “She is just a delightful individual,
and she has obviously meant a lot to
scholastic journalism in Tennessee.
She’s deserving of having more than
just an award named after her. I thought
that was the least I could do.”
Hufford has served on Tennessee Press
Association committees and participated in the annual Press Institute.
BY JEB BLADINE
McMinnville, Ore.
Every state has its own history of
public notices, but the common denominator is newspapers. For too long, we
in the community newspaper industry
have taken those notices for granted,
but no longer.
Public notices, aka legal notices, are
required messages about government
and civil actions. They are published in
newspapers, tacked to bulletin boards
and often posted on the Internet.
The push for Internet-based public
notices is happening in state after state.
National interests want to augment
required notices in newspapers with
Internet listings and ultimately to
replace those print publications altogether. State and national newspaper
associations are at the forefront of that
debate, fighting to keep those notices
in print, as they should be, along with
other players.
Oregon enacted some of our first
public notice laws in the 1920s. Back
then, each municipality had to publish the name and compensation for
each person employed—I can’t help
thinking that our cost of government
would be lower if it did the same thing
today. Over the decades, however, that
requirement morphed into complex,
small-print budget documents that
probably confuse more than enlighten
a dwindling number of readers.
We collect our money as if this were
a perpetual right. We forget that these
and other public notices could be taken
from community newspapers in the
blink of a legislative eye.
Oregon newspaper interests recently
formed a task force to resist pressures
that would move public notices to the
Internet. Its deliberations included
the following: Creating a statement to
explain the philosophy of why we have
public notices; improve the notices we
think are important and necessary to
publish; eliminate the notices that are
arcane, thus reducing government
angst at the publication cost for certain
notices; recognize that the Internet has
a place in the information marketplace
to permit government to communicate
directly with citizens.
That effort went into hibernation
when various special interests dropped
their focus on Internet-based public
notices in favor of other legislative
priorities. We have no doubt, however,
that their interest will return.
One effort fueling that process across
the nation is GlobalNotice.com, a wellfunded private venture that seeks to
provide statewide platforms for public
notice postings on the Internet.
Here is what GlobalNotice.com says
about newspaper public notices:
“Newspapers by nature are a regional
medium, and even if a newspaper has
a proprietary Web site, one needs to
know or guess which jurisdiction or
newspaper to search for public notice.
This makes searching and finding
a particular notice in newspapers
extremely difficult and potentially
prejudicial to one’s rights. To save
money, people and businesses often
use the cheapest newspaper to satisfy
notice requirements. This results in
notices being published in obscure,
low-circulation periodicals which the
general public rarely reads—thus
defeating the important public policy
behind notice requirements: namely,
the widest possible dissemination of
the information.”
Currently, there’s no evidence of
GlobalNotice.com having a strong
statewide foothold on public notices,
but its well-funded effort continues.
The National Newspaper Association
(NNA), financially supported by its
members across the country, needs
to take a strong role in this, working
with state newspaper associations and
legislatures.
Actually, the newspaper industry has
been “fighting back” for years, but the
effort needs new focus and upgraded
implementation.
Since 1999, the Arizona Newspaper
Association has provided an Internet-based platform for newspaper
public notices. Currently, 10 other state
newspaper associations are using that
system: Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and
Virginia.
Newspapers from another 13 states,
plus The Washington Post, are posting
public notices on the MyPublicNotices.
com site. Formed in 2001, it is a business
unit of Legacy.com, which provides online obituary services for the newspaper
industry. The strongest states in that
system are Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.
Individual state associations—Florida and Utah, for example—have their
own independent systems for online
public notices. The Utah system uses
ArcaSearch, which brings up searchable displays of legal notices as they
appear on newspaper pages.
Another major player in all this is
the Public Notice Resource Center
(PNRC), found at www.pnrc.net. It was
founded in 2003 by American Court
and Commercial Newspapers, which is
the professional organization of court,
legal and commercial newspapers.
There are 30 state newspaper associations, plus NNA and Newspaper
Association of America, listed as
PNRC members. The organization
shares a compilation of public notice
laws, rates and news from across the
nation, and serves as a focal point for
public arguments favoring community
newspapers as the preferred vehicle for
dissemination of public notices.
Community newspapers have a strong
stake in this issue. It’s not simply financial, although for many newspapers
these public notices are important
sources of revenue. The real issue
involves good and honest government,
overseen by an informed citizenry.
American municipalities and school
districts could save money by eliminating public notices in general interest
community newspapers and replacing
them with hidden, Internet-based
notices that will only be seen by a
few special interests. The community
newspaper industry should not stand
by and let that happen.
JEB BLADINE is president and publisher for the News-Register Publishing
Co., McMinnville, Ore.
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
10
The Tennessee Press
8
SEPTEMBER 2007
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
9
ELENORA E. EDWARDS | TPS
THE DAILY HERALD, COLUMBIA
General Excellence Award - Group III
THE STANDARD BANNER, JEFFERSON CITY
THE STANDARD BANNER, JEFFERSON CITY
General Excellence Award - Group II
From left: Front row, Steve Marion, staff writer; Kim Cook, layout and editing; Karen Potts, circulation; Gayle Page, staff writer; Angel Isbill, classifieds; Dale Gentry, editor; and Tom Gentry,
publisher. Second row, Shane Cook, advertising manager; Sylvia Cloud, advertising; Ronnie Housley, photographer; Darren Reese, sports writer; Ginger Burchett, front office; and Paul Young,
production manager. Back row, Gary Fowler, assistant pressman; Ray Seabolt, head pressman;
and Lisa Seabolt, assistant pressman. Not pictured are Pat Sexton, advertising, andTeresa Gentry,
bookkeeper.
THE ERWIN RECORD
General Excellence Award - Group I
From top, Jerry Hilliard, Keith Whitson and Donna Rea, from left, Brenda
Sparks, Mark Stevens, David Thometz, Lesley Hughes and Anthony D.
Piercy.
Column to be in book
Vanessa Cain of Halls will be included
in the upcoming Chicken Soup for the
Mom’s Soul. Her essay, previously
published by The Lauderdale Voice,
Ripley, in her column, “Raising
Cains,” is distributed by King Features
Syndicate.
The essay is titled “The Button.”
The book is due out Oct. 1.
NIKKI BOERTMAN | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, MEMPHIS
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, MEMPHIS
General Excellence Award - Group IV
Some of the staff members who contributed to the winning of the General Excellence Award
TRACKS
The Tullahoma News held a reception Aug. 1 to honor Bob Kyer, editor,
who retired.
Kyer was editor of the News for 18
years and wrote a column, “Crabby,”
published on the newspaper’s editorial
page. He will continue to write it.
|
The Bartlett Express said goodbye
recently to Greg Skinner, who retired
from the circulation department.
|
Esther L. Smith, formerly a copy editor and staff writer with The Business
Journal of Tri-Cities, has been named
manager for The Corporate Image, a
public relations firm.
CMYK
CMYK
KATHY HUSKINS | UNICOI COUN TY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Kneeling, Chris Fletcher, editor. From left, Marion Whilhoite, sports editor; Alex Miller, copy
editor; Greg Menza and D. Frank Smith, staff writers; Justin Lamb, sports prep editor; Skyler
Swisher and John Henson, staff writers; Marvine Sugg, lifestyles editor; and Susan Thurman,
chief photographer.
!Contests!
Q.: Do you really have plenty
of time to write that
masterful feature story?
Take that genius of a photo?
Design that compelling ad?
A.: Not so much. The contest year will
end in four months. The State Press
and Ideas Contests deadlines will fall in
about five months.
TIM BARBER | CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS
Tim Barber of the Chattanooga Times Free Press is the winner of the AP Photo of the Month for
March. His picture shows rescue workers removing the injured driver from an overturned tanker
March 6 in Chattanooga.
APME conference to focus on training
JIM WEBER | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, MEMPHIS
ELENORA E. EDWARDS | TPS
Set aside those potential entries now!
The staff of the Stewart-Houston Times, Dover, poses with the weekly newspaper during a visit Aug. 11 by The
Tennessee Press’ managing editor. From left are Shayna Smith, clerk; Loretta Threatt, general manager, who
has been in the newspaper business more than 30 years; and Bonnie Lill, Stewart County editor.
Jim Weber of The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, was winner of the AP
Photo of the Month for May. He took this picture of Baylor’s John Bradley
Murphy celebrating with Tanner Taylor after scoring the only goal in their
soccer game against Christian Brothers during the Spring Fling Division
II championship May 26 in Murfreesboro.
Know the latest skills your newsroom
needs and how to get them? Are you
sure how to keep online conversations
civil? You will if you attend the 2007
Associated Press Managing Editors
(APME) conference, “Fast Forward
to the Future,” Oct. 3 through 6 in
Washington, D.C.
Editors will hear from experts on
the future of the industry, how digital
communities of readers are being built
and the strategies some newspapers are
using to prosper in print and online.
Every editor will leave the conference
with a notebook stuffed with 500 innovative ideas.
One can go to www.apme.com for more
details, including how to register and
book a room at the conference hotel, the
J.W. Marriott on Pennsylvania Ave.
SEPTEMBER 2007
President’s Award: ‘An editor never too busy’
CMYK
BY JIM CHARLET
Brentwood
For those watching, it was clear
she didn’t see it
coming.
Henry Stokes, immediate past president of TPA, successfully retained
the “cover” of his
Charlet
second President’s
Award presented July 20 in Nashville
to the longtime managing editor of The
Tennessee Press.
Elenora Easterly Edwards kept pushing her pen to paper, following Stokes’
comments, and aiming her Nikon at
him.
“This is an editor, who…works largely
outside the limelight, but with pressures
for deadlines, accuracy and compelling
copy as great as any of us face,” said
Stokes. “It is a one-person show who
shows us what can be done, edition
after edition.
“This is an editor who is never too busy
to answer a request—be it a single fact,
a previous article, or a bit of opinion
drawn from experience and expertise,”
he continued. “Wonder who he’s talking
about?” Edwards asked herself.
“This person brings a friendly and
enthusiastic attitude into TPA gatherings—reminding us all that this
serious business is, and always should
be—FUN,” said Stokes.
And Stokes said his second President’s
Award was going to someone whose
tireless TPA work makes it possible for
members “…to understand TPA activi-
ties, the people who lead and help us,
and the issues we deal with.
“This editor attends nearly every TPA
event, and has for many years,” said
Stokes. That’s when the OOPS Factor
hit the pen and paper Edwards held, and
the room began to swirl. Something like
“flabbergasted” comes to mind.
Edwards just hit the quarter century
mark as a Tennessee newspaper editor.
She’s been the ME of The Tennessee
Press since 1991, and spent the 1971-1981
decade as news editor of the Clinton
Courier-News working for the iconic
Horace Wells.
She fondly recalls her time working with Wells, a Newspaper Hall of
Famer who spent a decade sharing
the copy desk with Percy Priest and
Coleman Harwell at The Nashville
Tennessean.
Among other things, Wells taught
Edwards how to prospect the public
notices for leads on news stories.
As the major documenter for the
Tennessee newspaper profession, this
64-year-old widow and mom to son Ben
operates as the “one-person band,”
writing most all news copy, all the
headlines and editing every monthly
tabloid page of the TPA house organ
from her Clinton home. Last month’s
40-page edition featuring the General
Excellence Awards is one testimony
to her work.
She remains in “elbow contact”
almost daily by e-mail and phone with
TPA management and staffers, and provides encouraging words and deadline
reminders to whoever is the current
TPA president, as he or she wrestles
with writing the monthly “Your Presid-
VICTOR PARKINS | THE MILAN MIRROR-EXCHANGE
Henry Stokes and Elenora Edwards with her President’s Award
of information issues were served up
ing Reporter” column.
Born Dec. 23, 1942, she is the younger as the main course, with food coming
daughter of Newspaper Hall of Famer second.
Edwards began her newspaper
Guy Easterly and his wife, Lucile. Easterly held longtime leadership positions career at age 8 as a news hawk selling
with the National Editorial Association her family newspaper, The LaFollette
and was a founder of the national Press, for a nickel apiece. Her dad was
Freedom of Information Center at the editor and publisher, and her mom was
University of Missouri.
society editor.
At the Easterly dinner table, it was
She later graduated to the position
legendary that lessons on freedom of “volunteer collator,” assembling
receipt books and football programs
in the newspaper’s commercial printing shop. “Painting the pink goo on
scratch pads was fun but messy,” she
recalls. She also took personal items by
phone and transcribed them for editing.
“Since the Press was a family business,
my sister, Helen Anne, worked on the
paper too,” Edwards said. Helen Anne
Easterly, who lives in New York City, is
a poet and a professor of English and
philosophy at Parsons School of Design,
part of the New School University in
Manhattan, and at The Pratt Institute
in Brooklyn.
At Maryville College where Edwards
received a B.A. degree in English, she
was editor of The Highland Echo, and
at the University of Missouri School
of Journalism, she worked on The
Missouri Press while pursuing graduate
studies. Freedom of information issues
were her study focus.
A 36-year member of the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists,
she serves as secretary.
Throughout her 25-year career as a
newspaper editor, Elenora Edwards has
retained an abiding enthusiasm about
the Tennessee newspaper industry, its
people and the “family newspaper lessons” she learned about life.
“Reporting stories about Tennessee
newspaper people is the most fun anyone
can have,” she opines. And she’s never
too busy for that.
JIM CHARLET is retired editor and
publisher of the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, and former copy editor and makeup
editor at The Atlanta Constitution.
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
7
President’s Award: ‘Mr. Positive as a Worker Bee’
BY JIM CHARLET
Brentwood
Anybody who’s
seen Michael Williams of The Paris
Post-Intelligencer
lately must wonder what’s juicing
his Wheaties box.
But then if you’ve
known Michael very
Charlet
long at all, you know
for sure it’s the same old Michael.
Because Michael’s Wheaties box has
always been stoked with an unlimited
supply of positive attitude, a high-octane smile, and a laughter that starts at
his little toe and goes all the way up.
Outgoing TPA president Henry Stokes
focused his laser beam on Michael Williams in Nashville on July 20, when he
added one of his two President’s Award
to the Michael Williams Wheaties box
in Henry County.
Stokes homed in on what he described
as Williams’ “…wonderful approachability and enthusiastic, bubbly manner” that Williams showed as chairman of the Freedom of Information
Committee in the Stokes tenure as TPA
president.
When the Tennessee Legislature
began jiggering around with reducing
government transparency in open meetings and open records laws, Williams led
the TPA defensive line with quick draw
editorials challenging those efforts.
And he shared them in an e-mail blast
to his fellow committee members.
That’s the kind of “leadership and
worker bee role” Stokes felt worthy
of honor. And he described Williams’
efforts as “…some of TPA’s most important and difficult work.”
Williams’ work in a dual role of
providing effective liaison with the Tennessee Coalition of Open Government
also drew Stokes’ praise.
He said Williams “…promotes his
newspaper’s mission to community,
and its journalistic integrity, while
maintaining the great legacy of a
newspaper family’s dedication over
several generations.”
That’s a heady observation from a
fellow newspaper editor at the pinnacle
of his 42-year career.
He said Williams “…promotes his
newspaper’s mission to community,
and its journalistic integrity, while
maintaining the great legacy of a
newspaper family’s dedication over
several generations.”
Michael Williams is no “Johnny Come
Lately” to Tennessee newspapers. He is
the fourth generation of editor-publishers of the Williams family at The Paris
P-I, so he comes honestly to the values
of family newspapers.
Born April 25, 1959 (one month before
I finished high school), Michael graduated Henry County High School, class
of 1977, then chased his dad’s shadow
to Murray State University where he
graduated class of 1981.
After college, the crime beat of The
Nashville Tennessean was his first
training stop.
There he learned writing and reporting at the knee of such taskmasters as
Jimmy Carnahan and Herman Eskew
Michael Williams with his President’s Award
from 1981 through 1982, when he became
news editor at The LaFollette Press for
the next two years.
In 1984, he returned to The Paris
ELENORA E. EDWARDS | TPS
Post-Intelligencer, making the rounds
of every pre-press and post-press
department until he was named editor in 1992
In 1999, he assumed the additional
role of publisher upon retirement of
his father, Bill Williams.
In addition to being the 2005-07 FOI
Committee chairman, Williams was
District 9 TPA director in 1993-95 and
was a member of the Public Notice
Committee in 2006. He has been a director of the Tennessee Press Service,
the TPA advertising sales arm, each
year since 2004.
Williams is a member of the directing board of the Paris-Henry County
Chamber of Commerce and a local
coordinator of the county Imagination
Library Program.
On weekends, he volunteers as the fifth
and sixth grade Bible class teacher at
East Wood Church of Christ in Paris.
Williams and his wife, Evonne, have
three children, Daniel, a Freed-Hardeman University student with plans to
become the fifth generation editor-publisher in the Williams family; daughter,
Katie, 20, who attends an equestrian
training center; and son Matthew, 12, a
seventh grader. Evonne Williams is the
newspaper’s business manager.
In Stokes’ commendation remarks, he
noted, “…Michael Williams has given
time and effort faithfully, to some of
TPA’s most important and difficult
work.” But if you’re Michael Williams
of The Paris Post-Intelligencer, you’re
a climber by nature, so all this is no
hill for you.
JIM CHARLET is retired editor and
publisher of the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, and copy editor and makeup editor at
The Atlanta Constitution.
We cannot take public notices for granted
ENGRAVINGS
Bowles cited by SPLC
Dorothy Bowles, journalism professor
in the UT School of Journalism and
Electronic Media, Knoxville, received
special recognition at a celebration dinner in June at the National Press Club
in Washington, D.C. The recognition
came for Bowles’ fund-raising work and
personal financial contribution to help
the Student Press Law Center (SPLC)
establish a $3.75 million endowment.
“I believe the work of the SPLC is
extremely important in instilling
First Amendment values in future
generations of American citizens
and especially those who will become
journalists,” Bowles said.
“The organization has made great
strides over the years since the early
‘80s when a handful of us—mostly
university teachers and publications
directors—met during the Christmas
holidays one year to reorganize and
‘rescue’ the fledgling center,” Bowles
recalled. “Since then, the Center has
come to the rescue of hundreds of
university and high school student
publications that have needed legal
assistance, often because their school
administrators had no understanding
or appreciation of
First Amendment
guarantees.
“In addition to providing aid in legal
battles, the organization works through
its publications,
Web site and speakBowles
ing engagements to
educate youths and
adults about the importance of freedom
of expression,” Bowles said.
For most of its history the SPLC has
lived hand-to-mouth, barely existing on
magazine subscriptions, membership
fees and contributions to support a
small, overworked staff and depending heavily on its volunteer board of
directors, Bowles pointed out.
“With this endowment fund now in
place, the future of the organization
should be secure indefinitely and can
continue to do its valuable work,”
Bowles said.
Bowles served on the SPLC board
of directors for 18 years and is now
a member of its advisory board. She
serves on the board of Tennessee Co-
alition for Open Government and has
been active with the Tennessee Press
Association.
“For the first time, we can be certain
that the Student Press Law Center is
here to stay,” said Eric Newton, vice
president, journalism programs for
the Knight Foundation. “From now on,
someone will always be there to stand
up for the rights of student journalists,
to push for student media in all its
wondrous forms, to show tomorrow’s
citizens that we people really do believe
in a free and open society.”
Recognizing the importance of
student free speech and the role of
press freedom in our nation, in 2003
the Knight Foundation issued the
SPLC a challenge grant to create the
Tomorrow’s Voices endowment fund.
As of Dec. 31, 2006, the SPLC met this
challenge by raising $2.5 million in gifts
and pledges, which the Knight Foundation will match with $1.25 million.
Students, teachers, foundations, news
media organizations and many others
committed to the future of the First
Amendment stepped to up to support
the SPLC in this campaign.
THSPA Teacher of the Year Award
named in honor of Hufford
Bonnie Hufford,
an instructor of
journalism at the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville,
was honored at the
Tennessee High
School Press Association Conference
Hufford
in Nashville for 21
years of service as THSPA director and
her devotion to scholastic journalism.
The THSPA Teacher of the Year
Award, given annually to the high
school instructor who receives the
honor, now will be referred to as the
Bonnie Hufford THSPA Teacher of the
Year Award. “Last spring, (Bonnie)
asked me if I would take over (THSPA
leadership)...I thought it would be nice
to recognize her in some way, so I came
up with the idea of naming our teacher
of the year after her,” said H.L. Hall,
executive director of THSPA.
Hufford was unable to attend the
conference because of a case of accute
bronchitis, but Jim Miller, a UT doctoral
student, accepted the award. “Bonnie
has been the driving force behind the
Tennessee High School Press Association for many years. She is truly an advocate for scholastic journalism in the
state, and the award presented to her is
much deserved,” Miller said.
Hufford said, “I was really excited.
I knew they were doing something
to honor me, but I had no idea it was
this.”
Hufford earned a bachelor’s degree
and a master’s in education from
Bowling Green State University. She
teaches editing, writing, graphics and
international communications.
“I have never known anyone as enthusiastic and as full of life as Bonnie,” Hall
said. “She is just a delightful individual,
and she has obviously meant a lot to
scholastic journalism in Tennessee.
She’s deserving of having more than
just an award named after her. I thought
that was the least I could do.”
Hufford has served on Tennessee Press
Association committees and participated in the annual Press Institute.
BY JEB BLADINE
McMinnville, Ore.
Every state has its own history of
public notices, but the common denominator is newspapers. For too long, we
in the community newspaper industry
have taken those notices for granted,
but no longer.
Public notices, aka legal notices, are
required messages about government
and civil actions. They are published in
newspapers, tacked to bulletin boards
and often posted on the Internet.
The push for Internet-based public
notices is happening in state after state.
National interests want to augment
required notices in newspapers with
Internet listings and ultimately to
replace those print publications altogether. State and national newspaper
associations are at the forefront of that
debate, fighting to keep those notices
in print, as they should be, along with
other players.
Oregon enacted some of our first
public notice laws in the 1920s. Back
then, each municipality had to publish the name and compensation for
each person employed—I can’t help
thinking that our cost of government
would be lower if it did the same thing
today. Over the decades, however, that
requirement morphed into complex,
small-print budget documents that
probably confuse more than enlighten
a dwindling number of readers.
We collect our money as if this were
a perpetual right. We forget that these
and other public notices could be taken
from community newspapers in the
blink of a legislative eye.
Oregon newspaper interests recently
formed a task force to resist pressures
that would move public notices to the
Internet. Its deliberations included
the following: Creating a statement to
explain the philosophy of why we have
public notices; improve the notices we
think are important and necessary to
publish; eliminate the notices that are
arcane, thus reducing government
angst at the publication cost for certain
notices; recognize that the Internet has
a place in the information marketplace
to permit government to communicate
directly with citizens.
That effort went into hibernation
when various special interests dropped
their focus on Internet-based public
notices in favor of other legislative
priorities. We have no doubt, however,
that their interest will return.
One effort fueling that process across
the nation is GlobalNotice.com, a wellfunded private venture that seeks to
provide statewide platforms for public
notice postings on the Internet.
Here is what GlobalNotice.com says
about newspaper public notices:
“Newspapers by nature are a regional
medium, and even if a newspaper has
a proprietary Web site, one needs to
know or guess which jurisdiction or
newspaper to search for public notice.
This makes searching and finding
a particular notice in newspapers
extremely difficult and potentially
prejudicial to one’s rights. To save
money, people and businesses often
use the cheapest newspaper to satisfy
notice requirements. This results in
notices being published in obscure,
low-circulation periodicals which the
general public rarely reads—thus
defeating the important public policy
behind notice requirements: namely,
the widest possible dissemination of
the information.”
Currently, there’s no evidence of
GlobalNotice.com having a strong
statewide foothold on public notices,
but its well-funded effort continues.
The National Newspaper Association
(NNA), financially supported by its
members across the country, needs
to take a strong role in this, working
with state newspaper associations and
legislatures.
Actually, the newspaper industry has
been “fighting back” for years, but the
effort needs new focus and upgraded
implementation.
Since 1999, the Arizona Newspaper
Association has provided an Internet-based platform for newspaper
public notices. Currently, 10 other state
newspaper associations are using that
system: Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and
Virginia.
Newspapers from another 13 states,
plus The Washington Post, are posting
public notices on the MyPublicNotices.
com site. Formed in 2001, it is a business
unit of Legacy.com, which provides online obituary services for the newspaper
industry. The strongest states in that
system are Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.
Individual state associations—Florida and Utah, for example—have their
own independent systems for online
public notices. The Utah system uses
ArcaSearch, which brings up searchable displays of legal notices as they
appear on newspaper pages.
Another major player in all this is
the Public Notice Resource Center
(PNRC), found at www.pnrc.net. It was
founded in 2003 by American Court
and Commercial Newspapers, which is
the professional organization of court,
legal and commercial newspapers.
There are 30 state newspaper associations, plus NNA and Newspaper
Association of America, listed as
PNRC members. The organization
shares a compilation of public notice
laws, rates and news from across the
nation, and serves as a focal point for
public arguments favoring community
newspapers as the preferred vehicle for
dissemination of public notices.
Community newspapers have a strong
stake in this issue. It’s not simply financial, although for many newspapers
these public notices are important
sources of revenue. The real issue
involves good and honest government,
overseen by an informed citizenry.
American municipalities and school
districts could save money by eliminating public notices in general interest
community newspapers and replacing
them with hidden, Internet-based
notices that will only be seen by a
few special interests. The community
newspaper industry should not stand
by and let that happen.
JEB BLADINE is president and publisher for the News-Register Publishing
Co., McMinnville, Ore.
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
10
SEPTEMBER 2007
One-armed paper-hanger editor-designer
Tennessee Press Association officers and directors 2007-08
PRESIDENT
Pauline D. Sherrer
Crossville Chronicle
DIRECTOR
District 5
Hugh Jones
Shelbyville TimesGazette
VICE PRESIDENT
NON-DAILIES
Victor Parkins
The Milan MirrorExchange
VICE PRESIDENT
DAILIES
Tom Griscom
Chattanooga Times
Free Press
DIRECTOR
District 6
Ellen Leifeld
The Tennessean
Nashville
TREASURER
Bill Williams
The Paris
Post-Intelligencer
DIRECTOR
District 7
John Finney
Buffalo River Review
Linden
DIRECTOR
District 1
Art Powers
Johnson City Press
DIRECTOR
District 8
Brad Franklin
The Lexington Progress
DIRECTOR
District 2
Kevin Burcham
News-Herald
Lenoir City
DIRECTOR
District 3
Tom Overton
Advocate and Democrat
Sweetwater
DIRECTOR
District 10
Eric Barnes
The Daily News
Memphis
DIRECTOR
District 9
Joel Washburn
Dresden Enterprise
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
DIRECTOR
District 4
Linn Hudson
LaFollette Press
DIRECTOR
At large
Steve Lake
Pulaski Citizen
CMYK
Tennessee Press Service officers and directors 2007-08
(Part 1)
•Create libraries. A master library of all eleAnyone who has ever hung wallpaper will imments is a must. But there also are items you’ll
mediately appreciate the meaning of the phrase
want to place in separate libraries, such as sports
“Busy as a one-armed paper-hanger.”
logos and business charts. The more, the betAnd the phrase certainly describes most smallter—provided you insist that the master library
newspaper editors I’ve met. They are editors.
be kept up to date.
Reporters. Managers. Designers. Receptionists.
•Keep it simple. Your design of page one doesn’t
Photographers. IT specialists. Plate makers. Fixers
need to be perfect—it just needs to be easy to folof copy machines. Brewers of coffee. Watchdogs.
low. There’s no need to do and redo and rethink
Servants of the public.
and rework. Use what you know works for your
BY
Along with all of that, they get to comfort the
readers.
afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Oh…and
•Don’t sweat the small stuff. Kick out the
DESIGN
empty the trash. And bring in the dog. And put
smaller inside pages quickly. Get them out of the
out the cat.
Ed Henninger way so you have the time you’ll need to devote
It’s no wonder they have little time to pay attento page one.
tion to the nuances of design. And finesse?
•Copy and paste. If you’re missing an eleNot a chance.
ment from your library or style sheets, go to
Perhaps some of the following suggestions
a page where you recently used that element
will help as you commit the act of design:
and copy and paste it to your page. No need
•Use keyboard shortcuts. They were creto recreate the element when you’ve already
ated to help you, and you can learn them as
got it in your files.
you go. Sure, you’re going to fumble once in a
Some of these are simple steps. Elementary.
while and have to revert to using the mouse.
Perhaps so, but they can save you critical time
But over the long haul, keyboard shortcuts
when you’re up against deadline. And it’s a
give you speed and power over your paginafact of life for small newspaper editors that
tion program.
you’re always up against deadline.
•Create templates. The more, the bet- For the one-armed paperter—your page one template can carry design hanger designer-editor, it IF THIS COLUMN has been helpful, you’ll
items (the nameplate, the UPC code, the index, seems there’s a deadline find more help in Ed’s new book, Henninger on
etc.) that you won’t need on an inside page. On every hour.
Design. Find out more about it by visiting Ed’s
the inside pages, you’d place a folio, a page
Web site: www.henningerconsulting.com.
label, a standing head, etc.
•Create style sheets. These are especially critical to your ED HENNINGER is an independent newspaper
typography, but you can also create object styles (such as a consultant and the director of Henninger Consulting,
photo frame with runaround) in InDesign. This shouldn’t offering comprehensive newspaper design services
take you more than a spare hour or two. But then, you gotta including redesigns, workshops, training and evaluations.
create a spare hour or two. (More on that next month in “The E-mail: [email protected]. On the Web: www.
one-armed paper-hanger editor-designer Part 2).”
henningerconsulting.com. Phone: (803) 327-3322.
TRACKS
PRESIDENT
Dale C. Gentry
The Standard
Banner
Jefferson City
DIRECTOR
W.R. (Ron) Fryar
American Hometown
Publishing
Franklin
VICE PRESIDENT
Pauline D. Sherrer
Crossville Chronicle
DIRECTOR
Bob Parkins
The Milan
Mirror-Exchange
DIRECTOR
Mike Pirtle
Murfreesboro
DIRECTOR
Michael Williams
The Paris
Post-Intelligencer
Tennessee Press Association Foundation officers and trustees 2007-08
PRESIDENT
W.R. (Ron) Fryar
American Hometown
Publishing
Franklin
Joe Albrecht, Albrecht Newspapers, Cookeville
Bob Atkins, Hendersonville
Jim Charlet, Brentwood
David Critchlow Jr., Union City Daily Messenger
R. Jack Fishman, Citizen Tribune, Morristown
R. Michael Fishman, Citizen Tribune, Morristown
Dale C. Gentry, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City
Ed Graves, The Jackson Sun
Sam Hatcher, The Wilson Post, Lebanon
Tom Hill, Oak Ridge
Douglas A. Horne, Knoxville
VICE PRESIDENT
Gregg K. Jones
The Greeneville Sun
Gregg K. Jones, The Greeneville Sun
John M. Jones Jr., The Greeneville Sun
John M. Jones Sr., The Greeneville Sun
Sam D. Kennedy, Kennedy Newspapers, Columbia
Hershel Lake, Pulaski Publishing
Steve Lake, Pulaski Citizen
Kelly Leiter, Knoxville
Bob Parkins, The Milan Mirror-Exchange
Mike Pirtle, Murfreesboro
Walter T. Pulliam, Knoxville
Janet Rail, Independent Appeal, Selmer
GENERAL COUNSEL
Richard L. Hollow
Knoxville
Darrell G. Richardson, The Oak Ridger, Oak Ridge
Dennis Richardson, Carroll County News-Leader, Huntingdon
Pauline D. Sherrer, Crossville Chronicle
Bill Shuster, Cookeville
Henry A. Stokes, Germantown
Jim Thompson, The Courier, Savannah
Joel Washburn, Dresden Enterprise
F. Gene Washer, The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville
Scott Whaley, Chester County Independent, Henderson
George T. Whitley, Covington
Bill Williams, Paris
H-C has new managing editor
Buddy Pearson
has been named
managing editor of
the Herald-Citizen,
Cookeville. He succeeds Wes Swietek,
who held the position for just over
two years.
Pearson
The announcement was made by
Publisher Mike DeLapp in a meeting
of the editorial staff.
Pearson has been sports editor for the
past seven years and has won several top
awards for sports writing and editing.
Before taking the sports editor position, he worked in the sports information office at Tennessee Technological
University, Cookeville, and before that
was director of media relations at
Carson-Newman College in Jefferson
City.
Pearson was born in Cahokia, Ill. near
St. Louis. When his father retired from
Ford Motor Co. in St. Louis, the family
moved to West Tennessee, where he attended Hardin County High School and
later graduated from Union University
in Jackson. He earned a master’s degree
at the University of Tennessee.
He and his wife, Misty, have two
children, Jacob, 13, a student at Avery
Trace Middle School, and Savannah, 5,
a student at Capshaw Elementary.
On being named editor, Pearson
addressed the newsroom staff, saying
he was “proud and excited” about his
new duties and pledging to work hard
to produce a quality newspaper and to
serve this community.
Commenting today, Pearson said,
“After working in sports in some form
or fashion for the past 17 years, I feel this
is a great career opportunity. I feel that
I have accomplished a lot the past seven
and a half years at the Herald-Citizen,
and this will be a new challenge. I look
forward to giving the same enthusiasm
and drive as the managing editor that I
have as the sports editor.
“I’m looking forward to working
closely with everyone in the newsroom.
I think we have a good blend of youth
and experience and we have all the potential to be one of the best newspapers
in the state. Our goal is to make the
Herald-Citizen a newspaper that this
community can be proud of.”
Pearson said he will focus on local
news coverage.
(Adapted from a story
by Mary Jo Denton,
Herald-Citizen, Cookeville,
Aug. 14, 2007)
|
Bryan Crosslin has joined the
Shelbyville Times-Gazette as an advertising sales executive. He is a Shelbyville
native and has been employed in sales
for more than 30 years.
|
The newest staff member at the
Macon County Chronicle, Lafayette,
is Dana Long. She graduated from
Western Kentucky University with a
double major in photojournalism and
history.
|
Tom Spargur has been named
publisher of the Claiborne Progress,
a weekly in Tazewell.
Previously, Spargur served as publisher of five Womack Publishing Co.
weeklies in North Carolina and was
the corporate advertising director for
Womack properties.
He succeeds Gary Lawrence, who
will remain chief operating officer
of Heartland Publications’ southern
division.
It’s a staple
“The First Amendment is not a
technicality for regulators to maneuver around; it embodies fundamental
values that must be honored even if
at times the result is disagreeable to
many.”
Laurence H. Winter
Law professor, Arizona State, 2004
11
TRACKS
Commercial Appeal names
two associate publishers
The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis,
an E.W. Scripps
Co. newspaper, has
named two new associate publishers
in suburban bureaus.
RichardMathauer
Mathauer
has been hired as associate publisher of the DeSoto Appeal
in north Mississippi, while Lucianne
Shoffner has been promoted to associate
publisher of the Millington & Tipton
Appeal office north of Memphis.
Mathauer worked as director of advertising for the Memphis Business Journal prior to this appointment. He has
more than 25 years of daily newspaper
experience, having worked in all phases
of advertising management with The
McClatchy Co., St. Louis Suburban
Journals, The New
York Times Co. and
Harte-Hanks Direct
Marketing (formerly
Harte-Hanks Newspapers). Mathauer
attended Miami University in Ohio.
Shoffner worked
Shoffner
on the national advertising desk for The Commercial
Appeal before her new assignment. She
has worked in the newspaper industry
14 years, including stints with Western
Newspaper Group, Gannett and an
independent company.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in
business administration/marketing
and a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Southeast Missouri
State University.
AHP names Leader publisher
Dale Bean has
been named as the
new publisher of
The Leader, Covington.
This is a great
community, and I
look forward to getting involved with
Bean
it,” said Bean.
He replaces Jay Albrecht, who was
publisher of the paper for five years.
Albrecht’s last day was July 6.
Bean comes to Tipton County from
northern California, where he served
as publisher for four newspapers in that
area. They also printed a free-distribution product featuring advertising.
Bean has been in the newspaper business for 27 years.
“We are excited to have him on board,”
said W.R. (Ron) Fryar, vice president of
operations for American Hometown
Publishing (AHP), Franklin, the group
that owns The Leader and 11 other
newspapers.
“Dale brings a lot of experience to
the paper,” said Fryar. “We think he
will bring a lot to the table for The
Leader.”
Bean said he has known Fryar for
many years and believes the philosophy
of American Hometown Publishing fits
his own philosophy. And that is keeping
community newspapers just that, with
the sole focus to serve the area and its
people.
“I believe in helping to promote a
growing and prosperous community,”
said Bean.
ETSPJ elects 2007-08 officers
Members of the East Tennessee
Society of Professional Journalists
have elected new officers and board
members.
Serving for 2007-08 are the following:
John Huotari, reporter at The Oak
Ridger, Oak Ridge, president; Jean Ash,
former radio journalist and current
tour director, first vice president/Front
Page Follies; Mia Rhodarmer, editor
of the Monroe County Advocate &
Democrat, Sweetwater, second vice
president/Golden Press Card Awards;
Elenora Edwards, The Tennessee Press
managing editor, secretary; Dorothy
Bowles, University of Tennessee
journalism professor, treasurer; John
Becker, WBIR-TV News anchor, membership chairman; Christine Jessel,
communications specialist for the Girl
Scouts of Tanasi Council, program
chairman; and Ed Hooper, Lakeway
Publications, Morristown, editor, progam co-chairman.
All except Becker have previously
served on the board.
Board members at-large are Kara
Covington, The Daily Times, Maryville,
assistant news editor; Amanda Greever,
The Daily Times, Maryville, copy
editor; J.J. Stambaugh, News Sentinel,
Knoxville, staff writer; and Georgiana
Vines, News Sentinel, Knoxville, political columnist.
Vines previously served in SPJ leadership positions, including national
president. ETSPJ’s immediate past
president is Hooper.
Adina Chumley, Ackermann Public
Relations, Knoxville, was elected to
serve as board member ex-officio.
The new board terms began Aug. 1.
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
6
SEPTEMBER 2007
CMYK
Saluting Seigenthaler, First Amendment champion
John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center, Nashville, wasn’t really present at the
signing of the Declaration of Independence.
But there he seems to be, courtesy of some
computer-age graphic magic, standing with the
Founders of the Republic in a reproduction of
a mural by painter John Trumbull that now
hangs in his office, a tongue-in-cheek gift from
his colleagues.
But as friends, family and coworkers marked his
80th birthday on July 27, it occurs to me that we
all might be better off in terms of our freedoms if
he had been there. No doubt he would have added
his own strong voice to that of Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Franklin and others.
Seigenthaler’s career has included turns as
newspaper reporter, editor and publisher, a stint
in the Kennedy administration that forever linked
him with the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s,
and lifelong duty as a defender of the five freedoms
protected by the First Amendment.
More than five decades ago, he began writing
and editing newspaper stories that defended
and extended the public’s right to know what its
government officials in Nashville were doing.
Twenty-five years ago, he was the first editorial
page director of USA TODAY, creating a unique,
multi-faceted forum.
In a column published over the July 4 holiday
weekend, he took some high-profile congressional
figures to task for proposing a revival of the Fairness Doctrine for broadcasters. He said, “It has
nothing to do with fairness. It is intended only to
muzzle right-wing talk-radio hosts who are chronically critical of Democrats in Congress.”
And just last week he spoke in Washington, D.C.
to American Press Institute attendees, the latest
in a string of API sessions that began 10 years ago
when he was a youthful 70, educating them about
our basic freedoms.
I should point out that I work at the center that
Seigenthaler founded in 1991. Further, I was a
colleague of his when USA TODAY was getting
started, though we didn’t directly work together.
Be that as it may, Seigenthaler’s place in the First
Amendment pantheon stands firm with
or without any accolades from me.
Just ask the more than 6,000 journalists and news executives who have
heard him speak at those API sessions
(with Ken Paulson, USA TODAY editor).
After a multimedia presentation that
combines information, competition
and wit, those thousands who touch
the lives of millions have come away
with greater appreciation of the role
of a free press in American life…and
likely with a new bounce in their free
press footsteps as well.
Ask student audiences from Florida to
Nebraska to Tennessee to Pennsylvania
to South Dakota and beyond, all places
where he has spoken about the unique
amendment that has no equal elsewhere
INSIDE
THE
FIRST
AMENDMENT
Gene Policinski
on the globe.
Venture into cyberspace, where
Seigenthaler’s First Amendment
concerns focus on a venture called
Wikipedia, and where, after a widely
read newspaper column he wrote about
false statements posted about him on
the site, an international debate began
about such “self-correcting” information sources.
Ask students from Florida, and one
inspiring but not-so-youthful former
Freedom Rider accompanying them,
who sat down on a recent afternoon in
Nashville to hear Seigenthaler—who
in 1961 during a temporary switch from
newspapers was representing President
John F. Kennedy in talks with the Alabama governor—tell of being knocked
unconscious in Montgomery, Ala. as he tried to
defend two young women from a mob attacking
civil rights workers.
Or ask the hundreds of people who last fall
packed a lecture hall at the Seigenthaler Center,
on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville,
to hear him talk about how and why we have and
need the protection of those 45 words that begin
with “Congress shall make no law....”
There’s a great deal of debate around First
Amendment issues today. What is the proper
balance of religion and secularism in public
life? What role does government have, if any, in
regulating the content of television programs and
movies? What may we say aloud and in print during
wartime? How free or controlled should student
voices be? How do we balance our right to support
candidates by writing a check vs. the need to keep
“big money” from corrupting politics?
As he and we celebrate his first 80 years, it’s worth
noting what Seigenthaler had to say on Dec. 15,
1991 (the 200th anniversary of the ratification of
the Bill of Rights) at the First Amendment Center
dedication: “Freedom of expression is never safe,
never secure, but always in the process of being
made safe and secure.”
Those words are on the wall of the center that
bears his name. They’re also a great challenge
to the rest of us: to get as involved in saving and
securing our liberties as he is.
GENE POLICINSKI is vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, 1101
Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22209. Web: firstamendmentcenter.org. E-mail: [email protected].
Ellen Leifeld, publisher of The Tennessean,
Nashville, presents John Seigenthaler an
oversized card signed by the newspaper’s
staffers. More than 400 people celebrated
his 80th birthday July 27 at the Freedom
Forum First Amendment Center on Vanderbilt
University campus in Nashville. Seigenthaler
is chairman emeritus of The Tennessean.
BILLY KINGSLEY | THE TENNESSEAN, NASHVILLE
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The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
5
OBITUARIES
David Byrd
Printer
David Byrd, an employee of The
Leader, Covington, died March 6 in
Atoka. He was 58.
Employed at The Leader for 23 years,
he had the longest current record of
service. He worked in the commercial
printing department. Before that,
he worked with Jack Forbess, also a
former Leader employee, in the printing business. The two then joined the
newspaper.
He leaves his mother, Dorothy Byrd,
and brothers, Robert and Charles Ed
Byrd.
Walter Dawson
of his life all mentioned the same thing
when remembering Dawson.
“He had a keen sense of humor,”
former newspaper colleague Tim
Jordan said.
Added Cherry, “He was so funny. He
had this dry wit.”
Former newspaper colleague Russ Fly
remembered one of Dawson’s typical
pranks.
“He had a sly, almost impish sense of
humor. He once confided to me that he
liked to start rumors about himself just
to see how they’d get twisted by the time
they got back to him,” Fly said.
Dawson also leaves three daughters,
Cayce Pappas, Sarah Dawson and
Charlie Hausen, all of Memphis; father,
Walter Dawson II of Summerville, S.C.;
and four grandsons.
Music critic
Van Pritchartt
BY JODY CALLAHAN
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis
Publisher
Former newspaperman Walter Dawson was remembered by a friend as
having two sides—one that came out
at night, the other in the day.
“As long as I’ve known Walter, he had
a fascination with the dark side of life,”
said Eddie Tucker, a friend of more
than 40 years.
“At night, he would spend time with
his biker friends. And the next day,
he’d put on a suit and go to work in the
corporate world,” Tucker said, remembering another story involving friends
of Dawson’s with names like “Tommy
the Pimp” and “Rubber Legs.”
Dawson, a former music critic and editor for The Commercial Appeal, died of
a heart attack July 30. He was 59.
“He was very complicated, very
complex,” Tucker added. “When I first
met Walter in 1966, he had a hobby of
cutting out words from magazines and
arranging them on pieces of driftwood
to create poetry.”
His wife of 19 years, Roslyn White,
endorsed that description.
“He was brilliant. With that kind of
intelligence, you examine issues deeper
than other people do,” she said. “So yes,
he was a very complex and complicated
man. I consider that a compliment, and
that’s why I loved him,” she said. “He
was a brilliant and beautiful man.”
Dawson began his journalism career
at The Commercial Appeal in 1968,
eventually becoming the newspaper’s
music critic. During that time, he covered memorable shows by the Rolling
Stones and wrote about the death of
Elvis, among numerous experiences. He
then moved on to become an editor in the
business and metro departments.
Dawson left in 1994 to become managing editor of California’s Monterey
County Herald. He and his family returned to Memphis in 1999, and Dawson
began working for First Tennessee 2000.
He remained there until his death.
“He was the most lovable curmudgeon
you’d ever want to meet. He rubbed some
people the wrong way, but he touched
so many people,” First Tennessee colleague Kim Cherry said.
People who knew him at every stage
BY CLAY BAILEY
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis
Van Pritchartt Jr.
always wanted to be
a newspaperman,
and he lived his vocation with passion
around the clock to
the very end.
“He always had
his yellow tablets,
Pritchartt
was always thinking about things and scribbling things
down,” his wife, Meredith Gotten
Pritchartt, said.
Pritchartt died June 15 after a long
illness. He was 80.
Pritchartt rose from the reporting ranks to leadership roles at two
newspapers in Shelby County. He was
managing editor of the old Memphis
Press-Scimitar when it closed in 1983.
The University of Virginia alum took
over The Collierville Herald five years
later, fulfilling his lifelong dream to
have his own newspaper. He remained
that newspaper’s editor and publisher
until his death.
“Printer’s ink was in his blood,” Mrs.
Pritchartt said. “That was the main
thing he cared about, getting out the
home edition.”
Pritchartt’s love of journalism
stretched to his freshman year at
Southwestern (now Rhodes College)
when he became editor of the campus
newspaper. After service in the Army,
Pritchartt attended Virginia Tech and
was named editor of that school’s
newspaper, his wife said.
Pritchartt once wrote a column in the
Herald about the Press-Scimitar during
“the days of manual typewriters, hot
metal and Linotype machines; before
the days of the laptops, the Internet,
camera phones and all the electronic
gadgets today’s reporters have.”
The newsroom, he wrote, was “filled
with tough, hard-hitting reporters
and editors, insatiable for the next
big story.”
It was that passion to gather the news,
and get it to readers every day that drove
Pritchartt.
“Van was as focused a person as I’ve
ever worked with,” said Vince Vawter,
retired publisher of the Evansville
(Ind.) Courier & Press and a former
Tennessee newspaperman, who worked
with Pritchartt at the Press-Scimitar
from 1970 to 1983. Vawter recalled a
day when several newsroom employees invited Pritchartt to join them
for lunch, but he had to prepare for a
television show.
“Thirty minutes later Van jumped up
and ran out the door with his bundle of
papers,” Vawter recalled. “His lunch
was untouched. Van always seemed to
be on a mission.”
Tom Stone, who was the Press-Scimitar’s city hall reporter for four years
when Pritchartt was city editor, added:
“He was driven by his craft.”
That also extended to the areas he
covered. Collierville town administrator James Lewellen recalled that there
were a few times he called Pritchartt to
talk about the newsman’s take on an
issue. Lewellen said the disagreements
were always on a professional level and
never became personal.
“Van was a passionate advocate for
the town of Collierville,” Lewellen said.
“He was passionate about the role of the
press in the community.
“...What he believed in, he believed
in passionately.”
In addition to his wife, Pritchartt
leaves two daughters, Wendy P. Ansbro
and Mary P. Muscari, both of Memphis;
a son, Alexander V. Pritchartt III of
Stamford, Conn.; and four grandchildren.
Gulf Shores, Ala.; nine grandchildren;
and two great-grandchildren.
Rail’s philanthropic endeavors
included founding the Academic
Awards Banquet for the eight schools
in McNairy County held for the past 21
years, an annual baseball tournament
in McNairy County to fund uniforms
and equipment for both high school
baseball teams now in its 23rd year, as
well as the Warm the Children Fund to
provide clothing for needy children in
the community.
He was a member of the East View
Church of Christ in Selmer and Main
Street Church of Christ in Mt. Pleasant.
A long time member of the Tennessee
Press Association, he served on the TPA
Foundation Board. He was a member
of various boards in the community,
as well as the National Newspaper Association; Rotary Club in Selmer, which
cited him as Citizen of the Year; and the
former Lions Club in Mt. Pleasant.
Friends can contact the family at
311 Florida Ave., Mt. Pleasant, Tenn.
38474.
No-brainer
“It is impossible for citizens to engage
in responsible political debate if they
are denied access to critical information about the actions of elected
officials.”
Geoffrey R. Stone
Law professor, University
of Chicago, 2004
NOTICE
October is the
month in which
the U.S. Postal
Service requires
that periodicals
run their annual
Statements of
Ownership.
To download
Form 3526, go to
www.usps.com/
forms/
periodicals.htm.
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
12
William J. Rail
Newspaper owner
William Joseph
(Bill) Rail, 77, longtime Tennessee
newspaper man,
died Aug. 14 in his
home in Mt. Pleasant.
Born in Mt. Pleasant, he was a dual
Rail
resident of that
community and
Selmer.
He graduated from Hay Long High
School in 1950 and started his career in
the newspaper industry after attending
the Nashville School of Printing to become a Linotype operator. He returned
to Mt. Pleasant after brief employment
in Lexington, Ky.
He spent 24 years working and eventually publishing the Mt. Pleasant
Record. In 1976 he moved to Selmer
and bought McNairy Publishing Co.,
publisher of the Independent Appeal
and Adamsville News.
Bill was a quiet man with a strong wit
and charm. He was passionate about
people and fascinated by their stories.
He cherished his friends and family. Till
the end, he never lost his sense of humor
and positive attitude. He was preceded
in death by a daughter, Deborah Rail
Boshers of Mt. Pleasant. He leaves his
wife, Betty Rone Rail; a daughter, Janet
Rail of Selmer; a son, William Rail of
2008
Tennessee
Newspaper
Directory
Advertising opportunities
Contact: Barry Jarrell
TPS advertising director
(865) 584-5761, ext. 108
SEPTEMBER 2007
CMYK
Maybe bloggers can adopt P.R. model
Where’s my Teamsters card? As a condition
of full-time employment to run a printing press
for a Minnesota truck company, I had to join the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. I
quit a part-time, low-paying job I loved as sports
editor of a weekly to take the new position. The
steep monthly dues were offset by good wages,
which allowed me to earn a master’s degree while
paying rent on an apartment.
Now another union is attempting to form, as
you may have read recently. But this one is for
bloggers. An Associated Press story by Ashley
Heher said:
“In a move that might make some people scratch
their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers (sic) are trying to band together to
form a labor union they hope will help them receive
health insurance, conduct collective bargaining
or even set professional standards.”
It is applaudable that this coalition is thinking
about setting professional values. Perhaps that
step should be taken first so the assortment of
individuals with blogs who claim to be journalists
can be better classified.
AP’s article talks about similar activities when
freelance writers wanted more rights and protections about 25 years ago. But the wide range of
freelance writers wanting more clout consisted of
people who submitted articles to editors for publication. That gatekeeper function performed by the
professional journalist protected the public—for
the most part—from sensational, opinionated,
dogmatic outbursts. However, all bloggers have
their own 2007 version of a printing press—the
World Wide Web.
That is not to deny that many Tennessee bloggers are indeed trained writers with a sense of
fairness and professionalism. But for those who
a member? What are the guidelines? What
are not—and there are thousands—where
about a looser federation for those who
is the gatekeeper function? Bloggers,
are activist bloggers to something else
identified by many seasoned newspaper
for those who merely want to chat about
journalists as thin-skinned, may cry
video games or the hottest girl band?
censorship if all of them are not allowed
Not all bloggers are enchanted with the
to unionize.
union concept.
The Pew Internet & American Life
“The blogosphere is such a weird
Project estimates 11 percent of American
term and such a weird idea,” admits
Internet users have made Web pages or
blogs for others, and eight percent have PRESSING Curt Hopkins, founder of the Committee to Protect Bloggers, in the AP story.
created their own online journals or We“It’s anyone who wants to do it. There’s
blogs. More than 120,000 blogs are going ISSUES
absolutely no commonality there. How
online every day.
Current debate brings back a mid- Randy Hines will they find a commonality to go on? I
think it’s doomed to failure on any sort
20th century history lesson about the
public relations profession. Edward
of large scale.”
Bernays, considered by many to be the father of
Blogging also was discussed in June in New
modern P.R., advocated for the licensing of P.R.
practitioners. He thought such a move would
eliminate the charlatans and elevate the profession. But implementing licensure procedures
Two Tennessee newspaper advertising directors
(such as producing and grading examinations, have been elected to leadership positions with the
adopting minimum educational requirements, Mid-Atlantic Newspaper Advertising and Marketsetting uniform standards) proved too much of ing Executive (NAME).
an obstacle. What about someone who passed the
Artie Wehenkel, advertising director with
licensing exam in one state but wants to practice The Greeneville Sun, was elected executive vice
in another? Many public relations activities are president, and Bill Cummings, advertising sales
conducted nationwide and worldwide.
manager with the Johnson City Press, was elected
A solution for P.R. was to create an accreditation to a three-year term on the board of directors.
process back in 1965 that was voluntary. Members
who wanted to prove their professionalism could
become certified as competent, experienced practitioners by undergoing oral and written exams
The Southern Circulation Managers Association
and passing a portfolio review process. Anyone (SCMA) has elected Tennesseans to leadership
can still claim to be a P.R. person, but only those positions for 2007-08.
who are accredited can use that status in their
Jim Boyd, News Sentinel, Knoxville, is serving
materials.
as third vice president; Heather Nicholson, The
Heher mentions that the union blog proposal has Lebanon Democrat, as a state director, a position
lots of questions unanswered. Who should become formerly held by Phil Hensley, Johnson City Press;
PROFILE
News-Sentinel in the advertising department, where he rose to
national advertising manager, advertising director and later
business manager. He retired after six years at the corporate
office of Scripps-Howard in New York City and passed away in
1976. Mother was very active in our schools through the years,
as she was at Ft. Sanders Hospital, where she recently was cited
as a 40-year Pink Lady volunteer. She was also a very active
volunteer at Ramsey House and her church, Sequoyah Hills
Presbyterian. For years she was active in garden clubs and
loved her flowers. She recently relocated to a retirement home
in Black Mountain, N. C.
Art Powers
TPA director, District 1
Publisher, Johnson City Press
Personal: I grew up in Knoxville on the campus of the University of Tennessee, as did my wife, Fran. We attended the same
kindergarten and began dating while at West High School. We
don’t remember not knowing each other. She IS my best friend
and love. Her interests are working for the Johnson City Area
Arts Council, Ronald McDonald House here in Johnson City and
with Adult Day Services, a United Way agency, and working out
in the gym. I was a marketing major at the university and graduated in 1972. I have a brother, Frank, who is retired from Smith
Barney in Tampa, Fla. and lives in North Carolina.
I volunteer with the United Way, Chamber of Commerce, advisory
boards at Milligan College, foundation member of ETSU and
Northeast State, a 20-year trustee at Virginia Intermont College,
a 30-plus-year Rotarian, a member of the Business Alliance of
Northeast Tennessee/Southwest Virginia, American Cancer
Society, the Christmas Box and Children’s Advocacy Center.
Fran and I have two daughters. Erin is a sixth grade Cedar Bluff
Middle School teacher in Knoxville, with her undergraduate
and graduate degrees from UTK. Our younger daughter, Logan,
lives in Atlanta, where she is a sales supervisor for Blue Linx
Corp., which sells building materials. Logan, too, received her
undergraduate degree from UTK.
My father was in the newspaper business also. Early on he taught
English at UTK, then upon returning as a captain in the Army
Air Corps after World War II took a position with the Knoxville
York City during the New Media Academic Summit. Those in attendance—a mix of professors,
journalists, bloggers and P.R. pros—seemed to have
no problems with legitimate journalist bloggers
having shield law protection. But there’s always
the question about the 12-year-old from Nashville
who wants to trash teachers at school. Does simply
having a blog give that student full journalistic
rights without any of the responsibilities? Will
12-year-olds be card-carrying members of the
International Brotherhood of Bloggers?
DR. RANDY HINES, APR, former Tennessee
educator, teaches in the Department of Communications at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove,
Pa. 17870. One can reach him at (570) 372-4079 or
[email protected].
Tennesseans elected by Mid-Atlantic NAME
The elections came at the annual convention in
March in Durham, N.C. Wehenkel will be eligible
for election as president in 2008.
Mid-Atlantic NAME was incorporated in 1944
to promote a close working relationship among
member newspapers in Georgia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West
Virginia. Headquarters is in Raleigh, N.C.
SCMA elects for 2007-08
and Lori Waddle, The Greeneville Sun, continuing
as a state director.
Dale Long, The Greeneville Sun, is chairman of
the board and immediate past president. Glen Tabor, Kingsport Times-News, continues as treasurer.
The new SCMA president is Dean Blanchard, The
Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate.
I learned to set high goals, be knowledgeable, assertive and a
strong leader. From Gene Worrell, I learned to stay on top of
as much as I can, give back to the community, respect other
newspaper employees and do what you say you will do. I’ve tried
to live up to these, and sometimes it is most difficult.
Most important issues facing newspapers: The transition to
digital from print. The Internet is changing the way we all do
business. If we continue to keep our integrity and accuracy as
high priority, we should keep our readers, both old and new.
Music: Beach music
Job experience: We moved six times in eight and a half years
with Worrell Newspapers to different cities in Alabama, Indiana,
Virginia and Kentucky and ended our travels when we moved to
Bristol, Tenn./Va., where I was publisher of the Bristol Herald
Courier for 17 years. One year prior to the sale of the Herald
Courier, I had bought three newspapers in western North Carolina, in Boone, Blowing Rock and Newland. I ran them for about
six years and sold them when I moved to Johnson City to work
with Sandusky Newspapers in 2002.
The favorite part of my job: I like the diversity, as no day is
ever the same. I also like the creativity; we have to generate
new and exciting ideas and products for our readers both in
print and online.
Least favorite part of my job: I am growing a great dislike for
e-mails. Many are just trash, others might be considered so, as
they are just a waste of time, and too many are unsolicited. We
somehow have allowed this valuable tool to become abused.
My mentor: Well, I’ve been fortunate to have had several through
the years. My first publisher in Alabama taught me urgency. Be
smart and move faster than others and you’ll be more successful.
Then there was my good friend J.D. Swartz who now lives in Johnson City, where he is a consultant with Morris Communications.
I worked with J.D. in Charlottesville, Va., Indiana and Kentucky.
Reading: Most recently I read a small book, The Ultimate Gift,
by Jim Stovall, recommended by a friend and business associate.
It will truly inspire you.
Recreation: Golf, fly-fishing, cooking, shag dancing
Movies: Mostly the old ones, as we currently go to very few.
Television: If it has a ball, other than soccer, I usually like to
watch. The Vols.
A day to do anything I wanted: It surely would take more than
one day but I’d love to drive across the United States.
Quality time with a historical figure: That’s easy! Jesus.
To learn.
Value of TPA: Our voice within this state creates a strong agenda
if we stick together. We absolutely must have participation of all
newspapers, daily and weekly, large and small, from Memphis,
to Jackson, to Clarksville, to Knoxville, to Chattanooga, to
Greeneville, to Johnson City, to Mountain City. If our membership doesn’t grow, this organization will weaken and, in this
time and place, we just cannot let that occur.
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
13
Jury to hear News Sentinel-Knox County Commission case
Unusual is the only way you can describe it.
In a highly unusual development, a Knox County
judge has ordered—allowed might be more precise—a jury to hear a Sunshine Law case filed by
the News Sentinel, Knoxville, against the Knox
County Commission. The newspaper sued, alleging that commissioners violated the state’s open
meetings law on and before Jan. 31, the date it met
to fill 12 vacant county positions.
Eight were county commission seats and four
county-wide offices. The Tennessee Supreme Court
vacated the offices, including the high-profile
sheriff ’s post, earlier in January by finding the
officeholders were in violation of a term limit provision approved by voters several years earlier.
The Sentinel said it all in page one coverage on
Aug. 18, the day after Knox County Chancellor
Daryl R. Fansler agreed to put the case before
a jury.
“Knox County residents, forced earlier this year
to watch in silence as their leaders appointed
replacements for term-limited officeholders, now
will stand in judgment of those same leaders.”
Jury trials are not as common in Chancery Court
as they are in Criminal Court. That’s where a
panel of peers of the accused—12 citizens “tried
and true”—hears charges against the accused
and decides guilt or innocence. That’s one way
this case is unusual.
Another is for a jury to hear an open meetings
case. I don’t remember any.
The Sentinel and its attorney, Rick Hollow, who
also represents the Tennessee Press Association,
were satisfied with Fansler hearing the matter, but
the chancellor allowed Knoxville lawyer Herbert S.
Moncier to intervene, as the paper reported Aug.
18, on behalf of clients he represents in two similar
complaints. Moncier insisted on a jury trial.
The Sentinel filed suit amid public outrage by
readers who felt commissioners had
following section (c) are read together,
thumbed their noses at Knox County
but the statute has been weakened
voters and their rights under the old
by recent non-legal interpretations.
Tennessee Open Meetings (Sunshine)
In addition to the “no quorum”
Law. After the Jan. 31 meeting, the
argument, officials have argued in
newspaper was flooded with e-mails
recent years that small gatherings
and letters from readers angered at
are not meetings because there was
how the commission had conducted
no agenda, no vote was taken, and no
its business. The newspaper dutifully
decision was reached.
printed many and posted many more TENNESSEE
That interpretation has not been
on its Web site.
recognized by any Tennessee court,
At the commission meeting, the COALITION
any act of the General Assembly, or
paper charged in its lawsuit, “citizens
any opinion of the attorney general.
FOR
OPEN
were not allowed to speak to comIn fact, the County Technical Assismissioners about the appointments. GOVERNMENT tance Service at UT noted in one of its
Commissioners held no public debates
advisories to county officials across
on nominees in front of the public,
the state that the Tennessee attorney
Frank Gibson
but instead used a series of recesses
general has warned that “two or more
to debate, lobby and craft deals.”
members … should not deliberate toward a deciHere’s how some witnesses described the events. sion or make a decision on public business without
When a vote to fill one office resulted in a tie, the complying with the Open Meetings Act.”
commission would call time out, retire to areas
Subsection ( c ) of the statute refers to “chance
out and around the chamber, and resume a while meetings” of two members not being construed
later with the deadlock broken.
as a meeting per se, adding immediately that “No
Among the results: The commissioners ap- such chance meetings, informal assemblages, or
pointed as the new county sheriff a candidate electronic communication shall be used to decide
supported by term-limited Sheriff Tim Hutchison, or deliberate public business in circumvention of
who at the time was six months short of qualifying the spirit or requirements of this part.”
for a higher pension. The new sheriff bridged the
Hollow told Fansler that the “chance meetgap by keeping Hutchison on the job.
ing” exclusion amounted to a “loophole closer.”
The county attorney has argued that commis- Chancellor Fansler was not buying the quorum
sioners who participated in the small-group “re- argument, and, in an Aug. 14 ruling, agreed with
cess” meetings did not violate the Open Meetings Hollow’s argument.
Law because a quorum is required before a meeting
The county had argued that its “notion…that a
is a meeting. The commission has 19 members, so quorum is necessary” was strong enough for the
a quorum would be 10.
judge to dismiss the News Sentinel’s case on a sumThe legislature’s intent on what constitutes a mary judgment motion, but Fansler disagreed.
meeting is clear when TCA 8-44-102 (b) (2) and the
The county then asked the judge to grant it
the right to appeal his decision immediately,
but Fansler refused that motion. To do that, he
explained, the county would have to prove its
chances of getting the appeals court to reverse
his “loophole” ruling that let the News Sentinel’s
lawsuit proceed.
The chancellor noted that appellate courts in
each of the three grand divisions have struck down
the quorum defense. “I cannot in good conscience
certify there is a good probability of reversal,”
Fansler said. A day or two before that ruling, one
county commissioner vowed to take the issue all
the way to the state Supreme Court.
After denying the county’s emergency appeal,
Fansler allowed Moncier into the case. Then after
the New Sentinel agreed to Moncier’s request for
a jury trial, the judge delayed the trial from Aug.
28 until Sept. 11. Hollow said the Sentinel wanted
to expedite the case.
Hutchison is remembered as the sheriff who a few
years back was fined $300 for criminal contempt of
court in a public records fight with a Knox County
commissioner. Attorney fees and other legal costs
far exceeded six figures, and Moncier represented
the county commissioner. But I digress.
The judge then took another unusual step. The
News Sentinel reported that he warned “both sides
to check any political agendas at the courthouse
door.”
“We’re not going to get bogged down in personalities,” he said. “We’re not going to get bogged down
in bickering. This is not a political arena. This is
a courtroom. Let’s have a clean fight.”
This time the voters will have a say.
FRANK GIBSON is executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. He can be
reached at [email protected] or at (615) 202-2685.
Senate approves amendment to FOIA
National Newspaper Association
(NNA) President Jerry Tidwell, publisher of the Hood County (Texas)
News, praised the sponsors of the
Open Government Act, S. 849, a set of
improvements to the federal Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA), for steering the bill to Senate approval in late
hours before it adjourned Aug. 3 for
summer break.
Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
and John Cornyn, R-Texas, who drafted
much of the original bill, were applauded for their work in the 109th and
110th Congresses to craft amendments
that would make FOIA operate more
effectively for the public, Tidwell said.
“NNA believes strongly that Congress
must periodically revisit the FOIA
and is pleased that this Congress
has forcefully done so,” Tidwell said.
“Agencies sometimes become slack in
their recognition that the records they
hold belong to the public. Without the
continual oversight of Congress, the
press and various interest groups, FOIA
bogs down.
“There are FOIA requests still that, despite the 20-day deadline for a response,
can languish for nearly a generation. It
is time to get serious about this law.”
NNA worked with the Sunshine in
Government Initiative, an organization
of 10 media groups, to build support
for the bill.
S. 849 sets up an ombudsman in the
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to guide information
requesters and to help mediate disputes.
It also captures some features of President George W. Bush’s 2006 executive
order requiring help desks in agencies
and adding new reporting requirements. In addition, it strengthens the
right to collect attorneys’ fees when
lawsuits force records into the public
domain, sets up a tracking system so
requesters can determine where their
requests stand, and deprives agencies
of the ability to collect fees when time
limits are violated.
For the government, it provides
additional time for agencies to move
requests into the right component of an
agency, a function that the government
has complained requires more time
than the law presently permits.
The bill differs from a companion bill
passed earlier this year by the House
of Representatives. “NNA urges the
House to accept the Senate bill in the
interest of completing this work during
this session,” Elizabeth Parker, NNA’s
government relations chairman and
co-publisher of Recorder Community
Newspapers, Stirling, N.J., said. “The
provisions in the bill are the result of
much collaboration among the stakeholders, the government and the leaders
in both House and Senate. We believe
this bill puts a new signpost before
the American public reminding all of
us that the government is us, and we
have not only a right but an obligation
to know what it is doing.”
Tidwell and Parker thanked Claudia
James of the Podesta Group for her
legislative guidance and members of
NNA’s Congressional Action Team for
their three years of work on the bill
as they explained its importance to
potential sponsors. They also express
appreciation to Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.,
and Robert Bennett, R-Utah, for their
work in accommodating the concerns
of federal agencies so that a bipartisan
bill could reach the Senate floor.
Ask senators to support open government bill
The Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) was enacted over 40 years ago to
affirmatively convey that a democratic
government must itself be governed by
a presumption of openness. However,
since its inception, FOIA has been
plagued by delay, inefficiency and, at
times, outright destruction of information.
S.849, the Open Government Act of
2007, is the first major overhaul of FOIA
in a decade. With bipartisan support by
sponsors Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, and
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, this bill will
be a more effective tool for the media and
citizens to access government information.S.849 advances and strengthens the
Freedom of Information Act in several
ways, as follows:
•Creates an ombudsman office. An impartial aide to help citizens, journalists,
educators and researchers to obtain
information faster and offer guidance
to requesters with fact-finding reviews
and non-binding opinions. Creating this
office has been the special focus of the
National Newspaper Association.
•Assigns a tracking number to
every request. An individual tracking number will enable requesters to
see exactly where a release stands in
processing and will enable agencies to
provide more accurate status reports
on requests to the individual requester
and to Congress.
•Increases penalties for agencies that
fail to respond within 20 days. Agency
backlogs continue to grow, with some
requests taking years or even decades
to be processed, and agencies need to
be held responsible.
•Strengthens litigants’ ability to
recover attorneys’ fees. If a requester
has to sue to obtain records, and wins,
he should be able to recover the costs
of pursuing litigation.
Why support the Open Government
Act of 2007:
•Provide an alternative to litigation,
through the ombudsman office, for the
vast majority of requesters who have
neither the means nor the time to sue
the federal government.
•Decrease the length of time required
to obtain information and promote more
openness in government.
•Require agencies to be held accountable for their statutory obligations to
provide requesters information on the
status of their request and punish the
agency for non-compliance.
•Encourage the right of access to
public information by no longer penalizing those who do have the means to
litigate.
Please direct any questions to Sara
DeForge, NNA government relations
manager, at sara@americanpresswor
ks.com or (703) 465.8808.
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
4
SEPTEMBER 2007
Pair charged
The
Tennessee Press
Association Foundation
wishes to thank
Joel Washburn
for his contribution.
Committee hopes to foster
industry-student network
Two men have been charged with
stealing and robbing dozens of
newspaper vending boxes belong to
The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville.
Eighteen machines were found in an
apartment Antony W. Gibson, 44, and
William S. Cash, 29, share. Sheriff ’s
deputies found other vending machines
as well.The pair are charged with the
theft of property valued at more than
$10,000.
BY KENT FLANAGAN
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro
The Tennessee Press Association office
in Knoxville will be closed
for Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 3.
Tennessee Press
Service handled this
much advertising for
TPA member newspapers:
July 2007: $560,948
Year* as of Nov. 30: $4,807,657
*The Tennessee Press Service, Inc., fiscal year runs Dec. 1 through Nov. 30.
STEVE LAKE | PULASKI CITIZEN
FormerTPA executive director Don Campbell talks with local merchants on making the most of their advertising
dollars. He led a retail seminar June 21 at First National Bank, Pulaski, sponsored by the Pulaski Citizen and
The Giles Free Press. It is available for other interested papers.
Three faces are new at TPA
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
The Tennessee Press Association
staff has grown by three in recent
months. New, or relatively new, faces
are those of Stanley
R. Dunlap, a reader
in the Clipping Bureau; Earl E. Goodman, print media
buyer for Tennessee Press Service;
and Joshua M.
(Josh) Ley, scanner
and tabber in the
Dunlap
Clipping Bureau.
Dunlap is a student at UT School of
Journalism and Electronic Media and
is interested in print
media. Earlier, he
served internships
at The Commercial
Appeal, Memphis,
and The Daily Herald, Columbia.
Originally from
Nashville, he lives
Goodman
in West Knoxville.
His parents are Judith and Wade Dunlap of Nashville. He has a half-sister,
Latonya Connor of Chicago.
He likes to travel and read and check
out various newspaper Web sites. His
favorite movies are Godfather I and II.
Announcing...
New 2x4 Option
Advertisers can double their space &
Newspapers can double their commission
Tennessee’s 2x2 Network
advertisers have a choice2x2 or 2x4?
2x4?
Contact TPS for the details
(865) 584-5761, ext. 117 or e-mail
[email protected]
There are 80 participating newspapers. If your newspaper does
not participate, you could be missing out on great commissions.
How about 40%?
• Tennessee’s Classi¿ed Advertising Network • Tennessee’s 2x2 Display Ad Network •
• Tennessee’s Classi¿ed Ad Network • Tennessee’s 2x2 Display Ad Network
Dunlap and his wife enjoy NASCAR.
“We root for different drivers, so that
makes it interesting,” he said.
Goodman has been with TPS since
May 21.He handles public notice advertising placed by the state, mainly the
Department of Transportation.
He worked at the LaFollette Press
from 1985 to 2002, beginning as a parttime advertising representative and
then handling obits, birthdays and
miscellaneous news. He switched to
accounting and later became office
manager. He also helped with make-up
and handled various other duties. From
2002 to 2004, he was co-publisher of the
Volunteer Times. For three years he
owned and operated a music-CD store
in LaFollette.
Goodman, originallyfromCaryville,
lives there with his
wife, the former
Rhonda Phillips of
Jacksboro. His parents are Earl and
Murlen Goodman
Ley
of Caryville.
Goodman said he loves all forms of
music and enjoys reading. He also loves
newspapers, and friends bring him copies of the papers published wherever
they travel.
Ley joined TPA Nov. 20, 2006. He scans
clippings for e-clips and also tabs.
He was a radio producer three years
in Johnson City and earlier attended
UT-Chattanooga for two years.
A Knoxville native, Ley lives on
Sutherland Ave. His parents are James
and Lee Ley. He has two brothers.
Ley said he listens to classic and new
rock music and enjoys college and professional football, baseball, basketball
and NASCAR. He jogs and enjoys other
fitness routines.
The Jour nalism
Education Committee has an ambitious
agenda for the coming year under the
leadership of new
Chairman Amelia
Hipps, managing editor of The Lebanon
Flanagan
Democrat.
At the top of the committee “to do”
list is an organized effort to create more
networking opportunities between
TPA members and college student
journalists.
“TPA is looking forward to hosting a
reception during our winter convention
for college student journalists. This
will be the first step of many steps
forthcoming that will create bonding,
enthusiasm, excitement, opportunities
and friendships between working members of our association and those that
are the future of our industry,” stated
TPA President Pauline D. Sherrer.
To help develop a closer and more
active relationship between TPA and
student journalists, a statewide college
press association is being organized
at Middle Tennessee State University,
Murfreesboro.
The new organization is called the
Tennessee Intercollegiate Press Association (TNIPA), which will begin
its first membership drive during the
fall semester, seeking participation
from college student publications and
universities and colleges that offer
mass communication and journalism
courses.
The TPA winter board meeting is
expected to provide TNIPA members
their first opportunity to organize and
elect officers.
Journalism students at MTSU have developed Web site content for TNIPA, including mission and vision statements,
logo, proposed bylaws, constitution,
contest rules and job and internship
postings and other resources for student
journalists. The interactive site is under
development and is expected to go live
by the middle of September.
While other states like Texas, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia run
similar networking sites, the TNIPA
is the first for Tennessee in more than
25 years. There was a mention of a
Tennessee College Press Association
in the archives of the Tennessee Press
Association Foundation dating back
to the 1970s.
“This initiative is the first recognition
in Tennessee of the need to connect
those who practice mass communication with those who teach and learn,”
said TPA Vice President Tom Griscom,
editor and publisher of Chattanooga
Times Free Press. “For those of us
who look at changes in the media as
convergence, this initiative is another
converging way to link the parts for
the future.”
KENT FLANAGAN is distinguished
journalist in residence for MTSU’s School
of Journalism in the College of Mass
Communication. He also serves as vice
chairman of the Journalism Education
Committee. For more information about
the Tennessee Intercollegiate Press
Association, he can be reached at (615)
898-2495 or [email protected].
3
BE KIND TO EDITORS CONTEST
ENTRY FORM
(Deadline Oct. 8)
Newspaper__________________________________
Editor(s) shown kindness_____________________
_____________________________________________
How, when, where___________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Entry contact, phone, e-mail__________________
_____________________________________________
Send entries to Managing Editor Elenora E. Edwards, The Tennessee
Press, 435 Montbrook Lane, Knoxville, Tenn. 37919, or fax to
(865) 558-8687.
5th Be Kind to Editors Contest
coming up; September’s the month
Get ready, get set to show your
appreciation to the editor or editors at
your newspaper. Join The Tennessee
Press in observing Be Kind to Editors
Month in September, and enter the
Fifth Annual Press Be Kind to Editors
Contest.
Take this opportunity to let people
at other Tennessee newspapers know
what top-notch leadership you have in
your newsroom.
Here’s how it works. At some point
in September, do something special
for your editor or editors. Then, let us
know about it no later than Oct. 8. A
judge will select the kindest of the kind,
and that winner will be announced in
the November issue of The Tennessee
Press.
Later, by arrangement with the winner, TPA staff will visit the newspaper
and treat the newsroom staff.
Previous winners were The Daily
Times, Maryville; The Jackson Sun; the
Chattanooga Times Free Press; and the
Monroe County Advocate & Democrat,
Sweetwater.
If one has questions, he or she should
contact Elenora E. Edwards, managing
editor, The Tennessee Press, at (865) 4575459 or [email protected].
See the entry form above.
Tennessee High School Press Association now operated at Vanderbilt
For about a year now, the Tennessee
High School Press Association has been
coordinated at Vanderbilt University,
Nashville. It has transferred its archives
of awards, records and student achievement to Vanderbilt after spending the
last 60 years under the authority of the
University of Tennessee’s College of
Communication.
Vanderbilt Student Communications
(VSC) is directing THSPA after four
years of successive growth by its own
organization, the Middle Tennessee
Scholastic Press Association. MTSPA,
which was created by VSC Director
Chris Carroll in 2002, has been folded
into the THSPA to form one organization and preserve THSPA’s records that
stretch to the 1940s.
“I think it’s really a source of pride
for Vanderbilt that now the university is
home to the THSPA,” Carroll said.
H.L. Hall, who has been involved with
student journalism for nearly 40 years
as a high school teacher in Missouri
and is nationally recognized in the field,
now serves as executive director of the
new THSPA. He served in a similar
capacity for the last three years with
the MTSPA.
Under Hall’s direction, attendance
for the association’s annual student
media workshop has increased each
year, topping more than 600 students in
the spring of 2005. The workshop is conducted on campus during Vanderbilt’s
spring break.
For the 2006 workshop, the MTSPA
membership grew to 50 schools and
74 memberships, with each competing
category such as newspaper, yearbook
or broadcast counting as a separate
membership.
Hall retired to Hendersonville in 1999
after spending 38 years as a teacher
in Kansas and Missouri, including 26
years advising the school newspaper
and yearbook at Kirkwood High School
just outside St. Louis, Mo. The Dow
Jones Newspaper Fund in 1982 named
him the national Newspaper Adviser
of the Year, and in 1995 the Journalism
Education Association named him the
first recipient of the national Yearbook
Adviser of the Year award.
In 1996 the National Scholastic Press
Association established the H.L. Hall
Fellowship for Yearbook Advisers,
which awards a $500 fellowship to a
qualifying teacher for a credit-bearing
university or college-based summer
course in advising school media. Hall
is the author of four journalism books
used in high school classrooms across
the country.
The THSPA’s Web site is at www.
tennpress.org.
Minimum wage posting requirements for U.S. employers
The deadline was July 24 for most
U.S. employers to post the new federal
minimum wage increases that recently
were signed into law. Workplaces
subject to the Fair Labor Standards
Act’s minimum wage provisions are
required to display the new rates in a
conspicuous location.
The U.S. Department of Labor has
created a poster that explains the new
minimum wage law to employees.
Copies can be downloaded at www.
dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/posters/flsa.htm.
This is the first increase in the federal
minimum wage since 1997. The new rate
of $7.25 per hour will be phased in over
26 months according to the following
timetable:
1. First increase - $5.85 per hour, effective on July 24, 2007
2. Second increase - $6.55 per hour,
one year after the first increase (July
24, 2008)
3. Third increase - $7.25 per hour,
two years after the first increase (July
24, 2009).
FORESIGHT
2007
SEPTEMBER
3: TPA office will be closed to
observe Labor Day
8: International Literacy Day
12-13: SNPA Traveling Campus, News Sentinel Building,
Knoxville
16-22: Imagination Library
Week
17: Constitution Day
21-22: TPA Advertising/Circulation Managers’ Retreat,
Knoxville
26-29: NNA 121st Annual Convention & Trade Show, Waterside Marriott, Norfolk, Va.
26-29: National Conference of
Editorial Writers Convention,
Hotel Intercontinental, Kansas City, Mo.
27-30: Religion Newswriters
Association, The Historic
Menger Hotel, San Antonio,
Texas
OCTOBER
3-6: Associated Press Managing Editors Annual Conference, J.W. Marriott Hotel,
Washington, D.C.
4-7: 2007 SPJ Convention and
National Journalism Conference, Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
7: Newspaper Career Day
7-13: National Newspaper
Week
13: Newspaper Carrier Day
11-13: 10th Institute of Newspaper Technology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
11-13: Society of News Design
Annual Workshop & Exhibition, Boston, Mass.
14-16: Southern Newspaper
Publishers Association Convention, The Greenbrier,
White Sulphur Springs,
W. Va.
NOVEMBER
8-11: Journalism Education Association, Philadelphia, Pa.
16-17: TPA Fall Board Meeting and Hall of Fame Induction, Marriott, Knoxville
2008
FEBRUARY
13-15: TPA Winter Convention, Sheraton Downtown
Hotel, Nashville
APRIL
10-12: Ad/Circ Conference,
Gatlinburg
JUNE
19-20: TPA 139th Anniversary
Summer Convention, Johnson City
Read
The Tennessee Press
—then pass it on!
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
14
(USPS 616-460)
Published monthly by the
TENNESSEE PRESS SERVICE, INC.
for the
TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION, INC.
435 Montbrook Lane
Knoxville, Tennessee 37919
Telephone (865) 584-5761/Fax (865) 558-8687/www.tnpress.com
Subscriptions: $6 annually
Periodicals Postage Paid At Knoxville,TN
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Tennessee Press,
435 Montbrook Lane, Knoxville,TN 37919.
The Tennessee Press is printed by The Standard Banner, Jefferson City.
Greg M. Sherrill.....................................................Editor
Elenora E. Edwards.............................Managing Editor
Robyn Gentile..........................Production Coordinator
Angelique Dunn...............................................Assistant
20
Member
07
Tennessee Press Association
The Tennessee Press
is printed on recycled paper
and is recyclable.
www.tnpress.com
The Tennessee Press can be read on
CMYK
OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION
TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION
Pauline D. Sherrer, Crossville Chronicle.......................................... President
Tom Griscom, Chattanooga Times Free Press............................Vice President
Victor Parkins, The Milan Mirror-Exchange.................................Vice President
Bill Williams, The Paris Post-Intelligencer...........................................Treasurer
Greg M. Sherrill, Knoxville....................................................Executive Director
DIRECTORS
Art Powers, Johnson City Press...........................................................District 1
Kevin Burcham, News-Herald, Lenoir City...........................................District 2
Tom Overton III, Advocate and Democrat, Sweetwater......................District 3
Linn Hudson, LaFollette Press..............................................................District 4
Hugh Jones, Shelbyville Times-Gazette...............................................District 5
Ellen Leifeld, The Tennessean, Nashville..............................................District 6
John Finney, Buffalo River Review, Linden.........................................District 7
Brad Franklin, The Lexington Progress.................................................District 8
Joel Washburn, Dresden Enterprise.....................................................District 9
Eric Barnes, The Daily News, Memphis..............................................District 10
Steve Lake, Pulaski Citizen......................................................................At large
TENNESSEE PRESS SERVICE
Dale C. Gentry, The Standard Banner, Jefferson City.........................President
Pauline D. Sherrer, Crossville Chronicle......................................Vice President
W. R. (Ron) Fryar, American Hometown Publishing, Nashville...........Director
Bob Parkins, The Milan Mirror-Exchange...............................................Director
Mike Pirtle, Murfreesboro.......................................................................Director
Michael Williams, The Paris Post-Intelligencer......................................Director
Greg M. Sherrill............................................................Executive Vice President
TENNESSEE PRESS ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION
W.R. (Ron) Fryar, American Hometown Publishing, Franklin............President
Gregg K. Jones, The Greeneville Sun..........................................Vice President
Richard L. Hollow, Knoxville....................................................General Counsel
Greg M. Sherrill....................................................................Secretary-Treasurer
CONTACT THE MANAGING EDITOR
TPAers with suggestions, questions or comments about items inTheTennessee
Press are welcome to contact the managing editor. Call Elenora E. Edwards,
(865) 457-5459; send a note to P.O. Box 502, Clinton, TN 37717-0502; or e-mail
[email protected]. The October issue deadline is Sept. 10.
SEPTEMBER 2007
The Tennessee Press
SEPTEMBER 2007
15
We can help with school safety
InCopy creates editorial workflow, harmony
Here it is September, and I can only sit and wonder
Deployment—calls for the first four law enforcewhat happened to July and August.
ment personnel on the scene to enter the building
Children are experiencing new schools, new
when active shooting is occurring.
teachers and soon-to-be new friends. Some schools
After reading these articles, I immediately called
are already looking at ways to cut expenses. Boards
our city police chief, asking if his men had been
of education must be made aware that the safety
trained in QUAD. He replied that they had trained
of our children takes priority.
inside a school during in-service without the presOne of the privileges that comes with the TPA
ence of school children.
president title is all the e-mail clips received daily
Crossville Police Chief Beatty now has in
from our fabulous Tennessee Press Service Clip- YOUR
his department articles from your newspapers
ping Bureau. In addition to articles with the incluexpounding on the various training occurring in
sion of words such as public notice, open records, PRESIDING other Tennessee cities. I will also be sending these
Frank Gibson, Tennessee newspapers, I asked for
same articles to members of our school board.
articles with words such as school disasters, school REPORTER
A major issue facing our communities is the
safety and school tragedy.
squabble over funding of school resource ofThe Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, reports, “Train- Pauline D. Sherrer ficers—a valuable tool, not only on the front
ing prepares officers for disasters,” on how the
line in our schools, but in counteracting school
officers with rifles shouldered and handguns drawn
violence.
moved down the corridors of McReynolds Building at Austin
As leaders in our respective communities, we can publicize
Peay State University looking for a shooter. Of course the the issue, strongly urge that our elected officials sit down
headline above the photo of two officers standing in a multi- at the table with their counterparts to find a solution to the
level stairway with guns pointed in two different directions funding issue, and we can encourage our readers to demand
said, “Mock shooting exercise at APSU.”
that SROs be employed.
The Johnson City Press picked up this story from AP and
|
ran an AP photo of APSU police officer Heather Taylor
The Tennessee Press Association Foundation bought
pointing a long-barreled weapon in the direction of the the rights for you to publish FREE “The Liberty Pole” in
photographer.
your newspaper as part of your Newspaper in Education
Elizabethton Star’s article titled “City officers train for ac- program. This is a serial story geared toward students in
tive shooter situations” reported officers of the Elizabethton grades three through seven. “The goal of this program is
Police Department just received special training that will to increase newspaper awareness and readership among
help them respond to an active shooter situation, such as this age group and to get parents and teachers involved in
a school shooting.
encouraging students to read,” stated Tom Overton, chairShelbyville Times-Gazette reported that the THP, Bedford man of the NIE/Literacy Committee.
County Emergency Management Agency and the 17th Judicial
I hope many of you mailed back your application to receive
District Drug Task Force recently joined forces to sponsor 16 free chapters of “The Liberty Pole.”
school safety training for law enforcement officers in three
Please pass along your NIE success stories or other ways
counties, Bedford, Lincoln and Moore, and police officers from that your newspaper or your online edition has become
Shelbyville and Wartrace police departments participated in involved in the school systems. We can share these success
a two-day class on how to respond to an active gunman in a stories with other newspapers that are not involved in the
school incident. Many of the deputies attending the training school system.
were school resource officers (SROs).
|
The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro, reported that SROs
Next month will be here before I finish this month! Create
in Rutherford County Schools will have super two-way radios a smile on someone’s face!
that will make it possible to communicate directly with the
agencies that respond to a school crisis. In two years, Ruth- PAULINE D. SHERRER is publisher of the Crossville
erford County has benefited from $75,000 in grants.
Chronicle.
A new method of response called QUAD—Quick Action
workflow systems,
LiveEdit users can
then open a file in
either InDesign
If you’ve been payor InCopy to view
ing close attention,
or make changes.
you’ve probably
Next, a reporter
heard me mention
might open the file
InDesign’s companin InCopy, write a
ion application, Instory in the allotted
Copy. Paginators
space and check the
know InDesign as
file in, making it
one of the tools of
Slimp
available to anyone
choice for creating
in the workflow.
newspaper pages.
For others, like editors and reporters, Immediately, the
InDesign can be overkill. Sure, you paginator receives a
could use InDesign as a word proces- cue that a story has
sor if you wanted to, but it’s a lot more been changed, then
application than most people need to accepts the change
place text on a page.
(with the click of a
This is where InCopy comes in. button) in the InDe- The left-hand page is from InDesign. Next to it is the same page as it appears to another
user in InCopy. InCopy allows users to see how their text and other elements appear on the
InCopy has been around for quite a sign document.
while, but most folks at Tennessee
T h e s e c o n d InDesign page.
how their text will appear on the page, Excel spreadsheets into tables, work
newspapers didn’t become familiar method of creating
with it until recent versions. Working LiveEdit workflows begins with the re- allowing them to create visual, as well with e-mail assignments and perforin conjunction with InDesign, InCopy porter. He writes the story, then checks as literary, masterpieces. This can mance improvements, the reasons
creates an editorial workflow, allowing the file in. After the file is checked in, be done from within InCopy without to consider the LiveEdit workflow
writers, editors and paginators to work an editor might check out the story to buying InDesign.
continue to grow.
There are a few reasons InCopy users
in harmony.
edit and suggest corrections. In addiUpgrades from previous versions are
Basically, the InDesign/InCopy tion to removing, adding and making should consider upgrading to the CS3 available for $89. The full version of
(LiveEdit) workflow functions one of corrections, InCopy users can create version. Primarily, you want to use the InCopy CS3 is $249. For more informatwo ways. More commonly, a pagina- “notes” that can be seen throughout same version of InCopy and InDesign. tion, visit www.adobe.com.
tor lays out the basic design of a page, the workflow but don’t end up on the If your designers are using InDesign
Institute of Newspaper
CS3, your editorial staff should be usleaving room for text frames, photos printed page.
Technology update
and other elements. Next, she “assigns”
Next, the paginator opens a blank In- ing InCopy CS3. It makes the workflow
You might have heard. The Institute
each element to be available to InCopy Design page (or template) and places the run much more smoothly. And at $89, of Newspaper Technology filled to
users. Using a check-in/check-out pro- InCopy text files in frames throughout the price is right.
capacity in July. Even after adding
An interesting addition to the CS3 20 spaces for students, we don’t have
cedure common in other editorial the page, creating a workflow between
her page and the text from version of InCopy is the ability to work nearly enough space for all the folks
InCopy. Still, anyone along with e-mail-based assignments. This who’d like to attend.
the workflow could check allows the paginator to send stories and
For those of you who registered in
out, edit and check in text, graphics as single assignment by e-mail. time, you’re in for quite an experiwith the changes appearing Basically, this means you could create a ence. We’ve added additional classes
LiveEdit workflow between persons in in InDesign and Dreamweaver to acon the InDesign page.
As I speak about new different locations, using e-mail where a commodate the folks who signed up for
technology at industry and server isn’t present to share their files. these topics. In all, there will be more
press association gather- Yes, very interesting. Assignments have than 70 students and instructors at the
ings, I generally receive also been improved in InCopy CS3 (and October session.
more questions concern- InDesign CS3), making it easier to keep Webinars continue to draw crowds
ing InCopy than any other related stories together. This makes it
We held our second webinar in August,
software product. Generally, easier for InCopy users who want to with TPA members from Johnson City
publishers who haven’t seen open an individual story rather than to McKenzie in attendance. Good crowds
the application have heard an assignment file containing several and no technical problems have been
of it and want to know how stories. Let’s not forget InCopy CS3’s the highlights of both sessions held
it works. “Can you really ability to import Excel spreadsheets to date. Our next webinar, The Basics
see how the text is going to into tables.
of Photo Editing in Photoshop, will be
I’ve
worked
with
several
newspapers
appear
on
the
fi
nal
InDesign
held on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 5.
InCopy CS3 allows users to create assignments that can be e-mailed to field reporters page while you’re working in over the past three years to implement For more information, or to download
and editors who aren’t connected to the InCopy?” I hear that one a lot. the LiveEdit workflow. With each a registration form, visit www.tnpress.
upgrade, the workflow continues to com and click on the TRAINING button
And yes, you can.
workflow server.
Folks who write cutlines improve in ease of use and capabilities. on the right sidebar.
and headlines love the ability to see With InCopy CS3’s ability to convert
Traveling Campus coming
The Southern Newspaper Publishers
Association’s (SNPA) Traveling Campus will be held Sept. 12 and 13 at the
News Sentinel Building in Knoxville.
Topics offered are for management,
newsroom, advertising and circulation
personnel.
Newsroom: Great media writing and
secrets of successful storytelling, presented by Paula LaRocque, Arlington,
Texas.
Circulation: Essential skills for
district mangers and the past, present
and future of circulation, presented by
Bob Bobber, Orlando, Fla.
Advertising: Ad design and copywriting for the newspaper sales reps
and selling the benefits of newspaper
advertising, presented by Carol Richer
Gammell, Sales Training Plus, Tulsa,
Okla.
Management: Critical management
skills presented by Jules Ciotta, Motivation Communications, Atlanta, Ga.
Details and registration information
can be found at www.travelingcampus.
com or by calling (404) 256-0444. The
Traveling Campus program is sponsored by the
SNPA Foundation and co-sponsored
in Tennessee by the Tennessee Press
Association Foundation.
Plan for National Newspaper Week
National Newspaper Week will be
celebrated Oct. 7 through 13 across
the nation. The theme is one highly
important to the people of the United
States: public notices.
The theme is “Public Notices in
Newspapers...Because good government depends on it.”
Newspaper Association Managers,
which has sponsored the observance
since 1940, produces a kit with a va-
riety of elements to help newspapers
tell their collective story, the role all
of them play in our society, or each
one’s story.
The Tennessee Press Association has
bought kits for all its member newspapers, which will be distributed in plenty
of time for inclusion in planning.
For more information, contact Robyn
Gentile, member services manager, at
[email protected].
HOW TO CONTACT US
Tennessee Press Association
BY KEVIN SLIMP
TPS technology director
Holocaust exhibit travels to Poland
BY STAFF
News Sentinel, Knoxville
When the Germans invaded George
Messing’s home country of Hungary in
1943, his father took him to a children’s
safe house.
For Messing, now a Knoxville resident, and his younger brother, it would
not do to be separated from their father
or mother. They escaped the safe house
and went looking for their father at his
former place of business.
It would be at least a year before they
found their father, who walked 250 miles
from Paris to get back to his family.
Messing is one of 73 Tennesseans
featured in “Living On,” an exhibit of
photographs and stories of Holocaust
survivors, liberators and U.S. Army
witnesses. A portion of the display is
now on exhibit in Warsaw, Poland.
The exhibit, organized by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission (THC),
opened in Tennessee in February 2005
and got its first international opening
(June 21) at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Warsaw.
Robert Heller, a University of Tennessee professor of journalism and
photographer of the project, and journalist Dawn Wiess Smith spent three
years finding people, interviewing and
photographing them. THC curator Susan Knowles helped with the interviews
and did much of the editing.
Those featured are Holocaust survivors who were born in the prewar
boundaries of Poland and several
liberators, according to UT’s Office of
Media Relations.
Heller said having the exhibit travel
to Warsaw “is significant because it
makes the project come full circle.” He
photographed some of the areas where
the Polish survivors lived and were
imprisoned while in Poland.
According to UT, Heller traveled to
Poland with several members of the
THC to attend the Warsaw opening,
speak to students at the academy and
visit some important sites.
Mail: 435 Montbrook Lane,
Knoxville, TN 37919
Phone: (865) 584-5761
Fax: (865) 558-8687
Web: www.tnpress.com
E-mail: (name)@tnpress.com
Those with boxes, listed
alphabetically:
Laurie Alford (lalford)
Moody Castleman
(mcastleman)
Pam Corley (pcorley)
Holly Craft
[[email protected]]
Angelique Dunn (adunn)
Beth Elliott (belliott)
Robyn Gentile (rgentile)
Earl Goodman (egoodman)
Kathy Hensley (khensley)
Barry Jarrell (bjarrell)
Brenda Mays (bmays)
Amanda Pearce (apearce)
Brandi Richard (brichard)
Greg Sherrill (gsherrill)
Kevin Slimp (kslimp)
Advertising e-mail:
Knoxville office:
[email protected]
Tennessee Press Service
Mail: 435 Montbrook Lane,
Knoxville, TN 37919
Phone: Knoxville,
(865) 584-5761
Fax: Knoxville,
(865) 558-8687
Phone: Nashville area,
(615) 459-0655
Fax: Nashville area,
(615) 459-0652
Web: www.tnpress.com
Tennessee Press
Association Foundation
Mail: 435 Montbrook Lane,
Knoxville, TN 37919
Phone: (865) 584-5761
Fax: (865) 558-8687
Web: www.tnpress.com
CMYK
The Tennessee Press
2
The Tennessee Press
16
SEPTEMBER 2007
UT School of Journalism and Electronic Media marks 60 years
This fall, the UT School of Journalism
and Electronic Media is celebrating
a very special milestone: its 60th anniversary.
“The UT School of Journalism and
Electronic Media has a long and illustrious history. We are very proud of the
accomplishments of our outstanding
alumni and faculty, and we look forward
to celebrating the past while looking
toward an even brighter future,” said
College of Communications and Information Dean Dr. Mike Wirth.
In honor of the anniversary, the
school is inviting 24 successful alumni
back to campus during fall and spring
semesters to spend one day with
students and faculty. They will share
UT SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA
their expertise and experiences. The
school is also planning on a day-long
celebration during the fall semester and
two functions for alumni and friends in
the spring semester.
“American media and journalism are
entering a new era, and our school is
quickly moving into the educational
vanguard, preparing students to face
the challenges and opportunities that
new and old media enterprises are offering,” said Dr. Peter Gross, director of
the school. “In a fast globalizing world,
we are also acutely aware of the need
for our students to be able to function
as professionals in an international and
intercultural context.”
The school’s earliest roots date to 1947,
when the late Professor Willis C. Tucker
was picked to organize a department of
journalism for the university. The first
classes were conducted in Glocker, and
students graduated as business majors.
Less than a decade later in 1953, students
gained the option of participating in a
radio-TV sequence.
In 1969, the department moved to
Circle Park, where it joined the Department of Advertising to form the College
of Communications.
Just three years later, the radio-TV
sequence split from journalism to form
the Department of Broadcasting. In
2002, broadcasting and the School of
Journalism rejoined to form the School
of Journalism and Electronic Media.
Only a few directors have headed
the school, and most of the names are
familiar to alumni. Dr. James Crook
succeeded Tucker in 1974 and served
as director until his 2001 retirement.
Dr. Darrel Holt served as the head of
the Broadcasting Department from
its founding in 1971 until 1984. Dr.
Sam Swan served as department head
from 1984 to 1994; Dr. Barbara Moore
then served in that role from 1994
until 2003.
Today, students in the school learn
about all forms of journalism.
“No longer can students just focus
on print or broadcast journalism,”
said Gross. “With the major presence
the Web has become, students need to
have a variety of skills and be flexible
in their work.”
For more information about the 60th
anniversary of the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, visit
http://www.cci.utk.edu.
Kappa Tau Alpha inducts new members, hears Vines
sor of journalism and electronic media,
led the initiation ceremony. Moore is the
faculty adviser of UT’s Willis C. Tucker
Chapter of KTA.
Georgiana Vines, Ahlgren Distinguished Lecturer and retired associate
editor of the News Sentinel, Knoxville,
gave the 31st annual John Lain Lecture
in conjunction with the ceremony.
The veteran journalist presented
students a first-hand perspective on
the difficulties many women reporters
encountered as they made the jump
from covering home and garden events
to hard news reporting. Vines showed
the initiates a photo of her covering
Luci Baines Johnson’s Marquette College visit as well as a Scripps newsletter article detailing how women were
taking an interest in news reporting
as a career.
Vines advised all students to keep
an open perspective and always be
on time to assignments. Additionally,
she stressed that reporters should not
allow themselves to be bullied while
covering a story.
The annual John Lain Lecture honors
the late UT professor, who was a member
of the UT faculty from 1949 to 1977.
UT’s KTA chapter was established in
1952 and in 1972 was named for Professor Willis C. Tucker. Tucker established
the School of Journalism as a department in 1947 and headed its 1969 expansion into what was then known as the
College of Communications. Tucker
retired in 1974 and died in 2001.
TPA’s www.tnpublicnotice.com begins operation
BY KEVIN SLIMP
TPS technology director
C
M
Y
K
Many, if not most, TPA members have
been in the newspaper business for the
larger part of their lives. Like many of
you, I delivered my first newspaper as
a small child. Beginning at the tender
age of 9, I put the sack over my shoulder
and delivered the daily news to my
neighbors. In addition to earning a little
money for clothes and movie tickets,
delivering the news created a sense of
pride, knowing that the information in
my sack was important to those who
waited for it every day.
It’s scary to imagine what our country
would be like without newspapers. Unlike a lot of Web sites and television
stations, we’re not just in the business
of providing entertainment. Our neighbors still depend on us to provide news
about local government and matters of
importance to the general public.
Newspapers have always treated
public notices as a sacred trust held in
service to the citizenry. Governments
have relied on newspapers to inform
the people on issues of public interest.
Local community newspapers have
striven to fulfill that trust by providing
notice functions for more than a century, performing this independent role
responsibly and with great sensitivity
to the essential nature of the task.
The newspapers of Tennessee have
long championed open records and
transparency in government. In order
to take that public service a step further,
we have established a Web site that will
include all public notices printed in our
newspapers. Www.tnpublicnotice.com
became available to the public in early
September.
Following other press associations
that have taken similar steps in the
recent past, TPA has added a staff
position to oversee this project. Holly
Craft will work with the public notice
site to encourage and assist member
newspapers in adding their public
notices on the site. Don’t be surprised
when you receive an e-mail, fax or phone
call from Holly. She began working in
this area in late August and will be
contacting every newspaper to encourage them to send their content to www.
tnpublicnotice.com.
In a nutshell, here’s how the system
will work. This month, TPS members
will receive instructions on getting
public notices to the new site.
Every newspaper will be encouraged to upload their public notices to
www.tnpublicnotice.com on the same
day they publish. This will keep the
online material up to date. We plan to
get 100 percent participation from our
members.
While this may seem impossible,
Georgia Press Association recently announced that it has reached 100 percent
participation from the membership
after beginning a similar program three
years ago. It will take a combined effort
of all of our newspapers, both large and
small, to make this happen.
After the newspaper uploads its
notices to the Web site as text files,
www.tnpublicnotice.com takes it from
there. Visitors to the site can search for
notices in various ways using keywords,
dates and other information to locate
specific material. The site, very user
friendly, makes it possible to find any
public notice in the state in a matter
of seconds.
The new Tennessee public notice
Holly Craft, who
has worked for
TPA for two and
a half years,
will coordinate
t h e n e w T PA
public notices
Web site, www.
tnpublicnotice.
com.
Craft
Web site is just one more way for
newspapers to encourage the public’s
right to know. Expect to receive e-mails,
faxes and phone calls from Holly in the
coming days as she works to encourage
members to add their information
to the site. One can reach Holly at
[email protected] or (865) 5845761, ext. 118, with questions.
Board Meeting, Hall of Fame induction set
CMYK
Twenty-two outstanding College
of Communication and Information
students have been initiated into Kappa
Tau Alpha, a mass communications
honor society.
Seniors, second semester juniors
and graduate students in the top 10
percent of their class are invited annually to join.
Dr. Barbara Moore, associate profes-
No. 3
SEPTEMBER 2007
Vol. 71
TPA members are able to upload public notices to the new www.
tnpublicnotice.com.
TPA members will gather Friday and
Saturday, Nov. 16-17, in Knoxville for
two important reasons. The first is the
annual Fall Board of Directors Meeting,
and the second is the ceremony to induct
posthumously four people into the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame.
Selected for induction are: Frank
R. Ahlgren (1903-95), The Commercial Appeal, Memphis (1936-68); Col.
Thomas Boyers (1825-95), TPA founding
president, Gallatin Examiner; Ralph
A. Millett Jr. (1919-2000), Knoxville
News-Sentinel (1966-84); and Willis C.
Tucker (1907-2001), University of Tennessee School of Journalism, Knoxville
(1947-1974).
The weekend also will include time
for continuing discussion regarding a
mission statement for TPA and some
TPA committee meetings. A limited
number of tickets to the UT vs. Vanderbilt football game will be available
for purchase by TPA members.
The meetings and banquet will be held
at the Knoxville Marriott.
Attendees may make reservations by
contacting the Marriott at (865) 637-1234.
TPA’s rate is $124 plus tax per night.
Friday, Nov. 16
1:00 p.m. Registration
1:30 p.m. Committee meeting
2:30 p.m. Committee meeting
3:30 p.m. Mission statement discussion. All members are encouraged to
participate.
6:00 p.m. Reception
6:30 p.m. Banquet/Hall of Fame
Induction Ceremony
NewsSwap now available to TPAers
Anyone with access to the Internet can search for public notices using
www.tnpublicnotice.com.
INSIDE
SHERRER
2
JOURNALISMEDUCATION 3
BE KIND CONTEST
POWERS PROFILE
3
4
NewsSwap, a story exchange feature
initiated by TPA President Pauline D.
Sherrer and the TPA Board of Directors,
went online Aug. 31. NewsSwap is a
section of TPA’s Web site, www.tnpress.
com, where members can exchange
human interest stories.
“These will not be major stories, just
those that would generate interest in
any community they are published.…
(NewsSwap) will be a place on the TPA
Web site where editors and reporters
can upload those odd, bizarre, unusual
news stories and tidbits that we all love
to read and talk about,” said Sherrer.
Every member newspaper will
ENGRAVINGS
SEIGENTHALER
10
12
receive information regarding the
download procedure, as well as a
user name and password. All members
are encouraged to NewsSwap icon
submit stories and
to use the stories on
the site with proper attribution to the
submitting newspaper.
“If we all participate in this venture,
it will be a smashing success for TPA
members and will enhance your readership sustainability,” Sherrer said.
GIBSON, FOI
SLIMP
13
15
Saturday, Nov. 17
8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m. Board of Directors Meeting
open to all members
TBA
UT vs. Vanderbilt football
Ad/Circ retreat
for managers
Tennessee newspapers’ advertising
and circulation personnel can still
register for the annual Ad/Circ
Managers’ Retreat.
While the deadline for registering at
the hotel with the TPA discount has
passed, one can still register with TPA
and find lodging there or elsewhere.
Besides planning for the annual
spring Ad/Circ Conference and Ideas
Contest, the event is useful for exchanging ideas about how to do the best job
on related topics.
Robyn Gentile, member services
manager, can answer questions. One
can contact her at rgentile@tnpress.
com or (865) 584-5761.
Details
What: Ad/Circ Managers’ Retreat
Who: Advertising and circulation managers and others interested
in these subjects
When: Friday and Saturday, Sept. 21-22
Where: Crowne Plaza, Knoxville
IN CONTACT
Phone: (865) 584-5761
Fax: (865) 558-8687
Online: www.tnpress.com
CMYK
BY APRIL M. MOORE
Information specialist
UT College of Communications, Knoxville