January Anniversaries

1/1	58 YRS	Joel Smyth	Chairman of the Board
1/5	9 YRS	Duane Clark	West Valley
1/6	14 YRS	Dianna Sellers	Corporate Services
1/8	5 YRS	Cynthia Paquette	Delaware State News
1/10	7 YRS	Norman Ross	Delaware Printing
1/13	21 YRS	Judith Sheedy	Okeechobee News
1/15	21 YRS	Robert Martin	Valley Printing
1/20	7 YRS	Tamara Kelly	Okeechobee News
1/21	4 YRS	Cecilia Chan	West Valley
1/26	9 YRS	Scherie Drzymalski	Corporate Services

Happy Holidays

The North Valley editorial team participated in a holiday happy hour recently to celebrate its recent launch of the Scottsdale Independent print product. A great time was had by all!

Press Person of the Year Award

Press helper Courtney Conner was voted by his peers as “Press Person of the Year” at the annual DPC press meeting held on December 18, 2017.  The award was presented to Courtney by pressroom manager Dave Rehkamp.  Courtney has been a member of the press team since April, 2015.  To his peers Courtney met all the criteria required to win the award, and then some. 

The criteria to win the award:

• Goes above and beyond to help fellow teammates
• On time, all the time, for work
• Volunteers to help anywhere, anytime to get things done and out the door
• Treats others, always, with Courtesy, Kindness and Respect
• Believes in the DPC motto ‘We Build Perfect Skids” and pursues perfection in all he does.

The award itself was a beautiful stein celebrating press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer’s (KBA) 200^th anniversary.  Everyone in the press department is very proud of Courtney and all agree no one is more deserving of this year’s award!

JUST A GUY QUIETLY DOING HIS JOB

All,

 As you know, last night (12/9/17) we had issues on the press that for a time it appeared we would be “hard down”, possibly for several days, due to a drive failure.  I received the call at 8:30pm from the press.  The actual problem occurred at 4:45am when there was no one in the building.  Go figure, but that’s what can happen with the advanced technology we have in our press.  You can think of it as one big computer and we all know what can happen when computers act up!

 But this mail I write this morning is in praise of Tim Buzzard.  After the initial call by the press to me at 8:30pm he called me shortly thereafter and said it didn’t look good.  He had been at the shop since 6:30pm working on the problem with KBA Germany who is networked in to the press and can help troubleshoot. 

I jumped into my car and headed in, not that I could help with this type problem, but if we needed to make a few “executive” decisions on what to do next it’s easier to be right there getting firsthand information.  By the time I got there Tim was still working on the problem with KBA.  He had changed out two drives on the press per their instruction (these drives are big, heavy and bulky and he does all this without asking for help!).    But we still did not have the press back.

 When you see Tim in these situations we’ve all learned to back off with “stupid” questions like “how’s it going” or “what do ya think?” and let him do his thing.  He is relentless, dogged and driven to fix the problem.  All one can do is stand there and pray he figures things out and gets us back up.  And that is exactly what happened.  By 10:30p it looked like we had things back enough to run the press.  There’s nothing like pushing the “inch” button on that press and hearing the “run” alarm going off and the press turning again!  Whew!

 If you ask Tim he’ll tell you he’s just doing his job, its what he was hired to do, it’s no “big deal”.  But I’m here to tell you it is a big deal.  In the past twelve years Tim has probably “saved our bacon” a thousand times, or close to it anyway.  Whether it is the press or any other machine in production (or even replacing a toilet seat!) no one has more a sense of urgency, dedication and pride in doing their job.  And no one is more humble about doing their job than Tim.

 So, if you are walking through the halls of INI and happen to pass by Tim you may want to say a quick “thank you” for being the person-on-the-spot in helping our company avoid disaster with all the help he gives us when emergencies like this hit and he is our only answer to the problem!

"I simply can't say enough about Tim's contribution to INI and what he's meant to us in these critical moments!" said Ed Dulin

December Anniversaries

12/1	1 YR	Matthew Roy	West Valley
12/3	5 YRS	Timothy Mastro	Delaware State News
12/5	17 YRS	Zenaida Matute	Valley Printing
12/9	14 YRS	Victoria Rosado	Delaware State News
12/11	11 YRS	Kristina Schwartz	Okeechobee News
12/12	1 YR	Cindy Witt	Corporate Services
12/13	7 YRS	Jan-Dhu McKinney	North Valley
12/13	2 YRS	Robert Cook	Delaware Printing
12/14	8 YRS	Tonda Parks	Delaware State News
12/17	8 YRS	Yvonne Kirksey	Delaware State News
12/17	5 YRS	Karen Riggin	Crisfield Times
12/18	2 YRS	Jennifer Antonik	Sussex Weeklies
12/22	3 YRS	Antoine Sample	Delaware Printing
12/22	1 YR	John Brooks	Delaware Printing
12/29	15 YRS	Darin Powell	Corporate Services
12/30	3 YRS	Melissa Fittro	North Valley

Chris Pitts Finishes the Race

West Valley graphic designer Chris Pitts completed an Ironman Triathlon Nov. 19 in Fountain Hills. He swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and ran a marathon 26.22 miles in order without a break. The West Valley team congratulates Chris for training hard and finishing the race. We’re proud of you! 

Clicking, clacking sounds mean Santa is on his way

By Andrew West

Delaware State News

DOVER — It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Delaware State News.

On Friday, this editor went out to the Delaware Printing Company side of our plant to see how the Thanksgiving stuffing was going.

There was a lot of clicking and clacking going on around the inserting and stacking equipment. On Friday afternoon, the machine was dropping multiple flyers into the print “jackets” at a rate of close to 10,000 an hour. 

This is our version of the “North Pole” in action. We’re going to have another thick Thanksgiving Day edition. “We’ve had 19 straight days of assembling packets,” said Ray Ford, DPC’s production manager.

For the “ wow” factor, here are some facts about the Delaware State News that will be arriving at our subscribers’ homes and stores Thursday: • 574,656 inserts will go out the loading dock door on Wednesday evening;

• Each edition will weigh in at more than 2.5 pounds.

Even though some consumers are perusing websites in search of deals and Black Friday flyers, you really can’t beat the aggregation of so much shopping information in a Thanksgiving edition.

The newspaper will include a supplement from almost every big retailer in Dover.

The whole process is pretty amazing. It starts with a paper “jacket” — or wrapper — that holds the other inserted material.

For instance, with today’s edition, the television and comics section acts as one of the wrappers.

The “jacket” is placed, one at a time, into an inserting machine and clicks and clacks its way around a circle and vacuums holds it open.

Stacks of other inserts are put into place and they get dropped in one at a time as the jacket makes its way around the circle and into a stacking machine.

No wonder “Ollie” was smiling on each paper as his ad was falling into place.

Check online today and you can see a video of this process in the “From the Editor” section.

Mr. Ford said the first of the Thanksgiving Day edition flyers came in on Nov. 3.

You’ll be able to consider “ wish list” items on electronics, toys, fashion, jewelry and more.

When you add up all the hours, it’s basically a full week of work for the staff of 13 inserters at Delaware Printing Company.

This is in addition to the regular daily demands that go with the Delaware State News and extraordinarily long list of print customers Delaware Printing Company serves in the region.

“We’ll do an MVP award for each shift after we’re finished,' said Mr. Ford. “They get to vote on the employee that goes above and beyond.”

❑❑❑

Coming up on Thursday, Nov. 30, is our “Holiday Events and Celebrations” section. You’ll want to have that to practice your favorite songs in advance of the “Capital Holiday Celebration” in front of Dover City Hall that night.

Our holiday television fans will be happy to hear that our Holiday Viewers’ Guide is in the works, too. It will be in the Friday, Dec. 1 edition of the Delaware State News.

Andrew West is editor of the Delaware State News.

Ray Ford, production manager for Delaware Printing Company, says the Thanksgiving package has been in the works for three weeks.

Vernon Bailey works the stacker at Delaware Printing Company.

Best practices for covering mass shootings

BY KELLY MCBRIDE · OCTOBER 2, 2017

Mental health experts are still trying to determine how media coverage of mass shooting events can contribute to a contagion effect. Journalists can make choices around the coverage that will minimize the impact.

Here are some best practices:

Name the shooter infrequently and only when his name is critical to helping your audience understand what happened.

Related Training

·        

Best Practices for Reporting on Mass Shootings

WEBINAR

·        

Journalism and Trauma

 

SELF-DIRECTED COURSE

As more information becomes available, be careful to be accurate and contextual. Small details can take on inappropriate levels of importance in the early reporting stages. Those details can be harmful to the truth if they are inaccurate or out of context.

Avoid speculating about mental illness or allowing unqualified sources to speculate about mental illness. Witnesses, law enforcement and politicians usually know very little about the topic in general, are likely to know even less about the role of mental illness in this tragedy.

Avoid images of the shooter that could be seen as glorifying him by others who might be inclined to other acts of violence.

Superlatives, like “the deadliest mass shooting ever,” could possibly lead to contagion. Avoid using them in teasers, tweets and other formats where context is absent. Instead, use them in reporting formats where you can bring more context, such as interviews, the text of stories and produced packages.

See these recommendations for more information on the best practices for journalists covering mass shootings.

Dan Reidenberg and I did a webinar on these recommendations earlier in 2017. You can find it here, on our new NewsU beta site.

Related Training: How to Cover Big News As It Breaks

Kelly McBride

kellymcb

Kelly McBride is a writer, teacher and one of the country’s leading voices when it comes to media 

Reprinted from the Poynter Institute

North Valley Editor Speaks at Cronkite School of Journalism

North Valley News Editor Terrance Thornton Tuesday, Nov. 7 gave a guest lecture at a former colleague’s journalism class at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University on how local government works and why the local newspaper business has a bright future here in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Nov. 7 presentation marks Mr. Thornton’s seventh appearance at the Cronkite school.

Bradshaw Named Sun Cities Libraries Favorite Journalist

Sun City Independent Editor Rusty Bradshaw in Arizona’s West Valley office was presented with a personalized mug by the Friends of the Sun Cities Libraries naming him as the group’s favorite journalist.

The Friends is a nonprofit group that provides financial and volunteer support to the Maricopa County Library District’s two libraries in Sun City. Rusty reports on the group’s monthly meetings and other activities.

The Sun City libraries were once private and operated by the Friends of the Sun Cities Libraries. But about six years ago the group requested the county include Sun City’s libraries in the district and the action was approved by the library board. The Friends remained active to provide support to the two county branches through its endowment fund, donations and sales from its bookstore, located in the largest of the two branches.

Letter of Thanks

“Rusty Bradshaw is such a nice and thoughtful person. He took a picture of my husband and I in 2013 at our home. My husband, Bob Adams, threw out the first pitch at Chase Field (for a Diamondbacks game). We both had worked there for 15 years. It was so much fun! Rusty brought a framed picture (of us) of Bob holding the baseball. It still hangs in our family room. He (Bob) passed away in 2014. Thank you, Rusty.”

Group event got response from article

I just want to send a big “thank you” for your great article about our upcoming show in the Kuentz Recreation Center Courtyard Nov. 7.

You featured our group in your publication last April, and the turnout was fantastic. I know we wouldn’t have received that kind of response without your article.

I’ve been a resident of the community since December 2011, and have always enjoyed your local paper for keeping up with the weekly activities.

Again, thanks so much for your work.

Tim Polizzi

sun city west

Reporter has opportunity to moderate discussion group

Reporter Melissa Fittro moderated a discussion on education overrides during an Oct. 30 panel hosted by Arizona Talks. The event was in anticipation of 22 school districts within Maricopa County voting on bonds and overrides. The policy panel Ms. Fittro moderated included a member of the Arizona School Board Association and a senior advisor for the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity.

FROM THE EDITOR

In defense of your First Amendment rights

“ The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Col. Edward Carrington (Jan. 16, 1787)

Those of us here at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA believe in the First Amendment. Not our First Amendment rights – but YOUR First Amendment rights. For a democracy to flourish and survive, its citizens must enjoy the right to free speech and discussion.

Unfortunately, it seems public discussion of meaningful issues has been made difficult -- if not impossible -- thanks to partisan politics, personal attacks and inaccurate information.

The result is not healthy for a democracy. Citizens are wary of getting involved in public issues. They don’t attend meetings. They don’t educate themselves on the issues facing their communities.

Bad discussions lead to bad decisions made by governmental bodies. Citizens feel left out and neglected. They turn away from the democratic process.

That’s not good.

Local news institutions, however, have always played a key role in nurturing democracy -- and I’m convinced they remain as important as ever.

Indeed, there is no more important time for a local newspaper to matter in local communities around the nation.

Scottsdale is no exception.

Our goal -- our mission -- at the Scottsdale Independent is to provide that service and be that newspaper to residents of Scottsdale.

Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA, publishers of the Scottsdale Independent, is a unique publishing and printing company that supports every American’s First Amendment rights and encourages and assists citizens in exercising those rights responsibly.

We’ve published a local newspaper in one form or another in Scottsdale for over three decades. We continue to publish the monthly Scottsdale Independent, but our focus on fulfilling our journalist mission has shifted to our website -- scottsdaleindependent.com.

I encourage you to visit the site, sign up for our daily newsletter and then get involved. Use our site as your platform to express your First Amendment rights on issues pertaining to your community.

Someone once said “freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns that press.”

Well, scottsdaleindependent.com is your press -- your site to join the discussion, share your views and be a part of the decision-making that impacts your community.

Write a letter. Post a comment in response to other letters or stories that appear on the site. Email me direct with your thoughts and opinions.

We at the Scottsdale Independent are dedicated to the idea our profession is explicitly protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and with that charge comes great responsibility --- one we don’t take lightly.

Get involved in your community

A great community deserves a great newspaper.

I want you to tell me and our staff what is going on around you and what needs to be reported on at scottsdaleindependent.com and in the Scottsdale Independent newspaper.

Not only are we committed to reporting the news of Scottsdale fairly and accurately, but we also want our product to reflect the community and its citizens. We want your news and photos of school events, clubs, organizations, church activities and more.

If you feel passionate about something, let others know by running your opinion in our newspaper designed specifically to serve your needs.

You can email them directly to me at tthornton@newszap.comor you can send them to our general email, which is received by everyone on our editorial team at scottsdalenews@newszap.com.

TERRANCE THORNTON

EDITOR

tthornton@newszap.com

Terrance Thornton is editor of the Scottsdale Independent and Town of Paradise Valley Independent. He can be reached at 623-445-2774 or by emailing thornton@newszap.com.

Independent adopts digital daily focus; new monthly mailing to 75,000

By Bret McKeand Oct 29th, 2017 Comments: 1

Beginning this week, readers accustomed to picking up a copy of the weekly Scottsdale Independent at a local newsstand will notice a significant change: Most notably, they will no longer find the newspaper.

And those who visit us online to read the news of Scottsdale will also notice a significant change: Even more local news!

As of Nov. 1, the Independent has adopted a digital-first mentality, with our news team dedicating its efforts to provide more news on a timely basis at our website, http://scottsdaleindependent.com.

At the same time, we’ve discontinued publication of the weekly newspaper, and instead will publish a larger, more expanded edition once a month. And to provide greater value and service to Scottsdale businesses, rather than distribute the publication through newsstands – we’ll be mailing the publication directly to 75,000 homes and businesses in Scottsdale.

Readers will still find all the familiar print publication sections online: news, business, education, entertainment, neighbors, photo galleries, classifieds and more.

In reality, we’re becoming Scottsdale’s new daily newspaper – but online – with the news of the community available as soon as it’s ready each day, giving readers immediate access to the community’s news. No longer will readers have to wait to read what happened the prior week.

And to make it very easy to stay on top of their community’s news, we’re offering a free daily e-newsletter. Sign up for the e-newsletter at http://scottsdaleindependent.com/enewsletter.

Just as important, readers and advertisers will receive a new expanded monthly newspaper mailed directly to 75,000 mailboxes in Scottsdale. ZIP codes receiving the newspapers the first week of the month are 85266, 85262, 85255, 85260, 85259 and 85258.

Those living outside of these ZIP codes, we will continue to make our monthly publication available in a few limited locations in South Scottsdale. The publication, of course, is always available to view at no charge online.

The monthly publication will be different than what our weekly newspaper looked like and won’t necessarily duplicate what’s appeared on the web site.

The monthly newspaper will include issue-oriented stories and be packed with useful, helpful and interesting information, such as:

• news of local government, schools and organizations.
• business news, such as openings, relocations, renovations and announcements.
• a comprehensive calendar of the month’s events, activities, things to do and more.
• latest updates on local development, real estate and health care.
• features on restaurants, residents and charities.

Changing from our weekly bulk-rack distributed circulation of 10,000 newspapers to daily online news and a monthly direct-mail circulation of 75,000 dramatically enhances our service to readers and increases our reach to serve the needs of local advertisers.

Classifieds advertising, generally found in the back of the weekly newspaper, will continue to be available online, but will also be expanded to feature Valley-wide classifieds. Go to http://arizonaclassifieds.newszap.com.

To learn more about the benefits to advertisers in the monthly newspaper or scottsdaleindependent.com, call our advertising team at 623-445-2777 or email neads@newszap.com.

We hope you enjoy and appreciate the changes. Please let me know what you think, as well as any suggestions of how we can be of better service to you and the community.

Bret McKeand is publisher of the Scottsdale Independent. He can be reached at 623-445-2867 or a azpublisher@newszap.com.

EDITOR COMMENTARY

Some of our readers may not realize letters to the editor in a print newspaper are still a thing.

But the opinions section is one of our highest priorities as your community newspaper editors.

The Independent Newsmedia mission statement reads: “Our mission is to provide the information and understanding citizens need to make intelligent decisions about public issues.

In doing so, we strive to report the news with honesty, accuracy, fairness, objectivity, fearlessness and compassion.”

As such, our news reporting is vital to the mission and success of our newspapers and you will find our staff-written news articles on the front page of this paper each week.

These articles often report on important community issues and we strive to meet the expectations of our company mission as well as the tenets of journalistic ethics in everything we print.

But news coverage of such issues is just a starting point for discussion and community participation.

My greatest desire is for you to share ownership in these opinion pages, both as a reader and, when an issue touches or concerns you, as a writer, as well.

Online vs. print

So much of our engagement with issues and opinions in this new century has moved to the tiny screens on our phones and other online platforms.

Indeed, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and agency or municipal websites are all fertile ground for discussion and debate.

But while digital platforms offer previously unimaginable convenience and flexibility, they fail the community in a variety of ways, including an overly broad reach, lack of moderation, and a seemingly institutionalized penchant for hostility.

Rather than thoughtfully discussing important concerns, cyber chatters often descend into unreasonable and deceptive arguments, hateful rants and – in the worst cases – threats.

Though we value and defend free speech, you will not find this kind of behavior in print here. Reader may call out one another over ideas or issues. But we are here to referee those exchanges – we will not print hate or threats.

Online chat responders may be your local neighbors, but are often just random trolls from anywhere on the planet – literally.

Even when an online responder identifies as local, how can you really know who they are or where they live?

Too many online “debaters” are just in it to get a rise or intimidate you into silence, not to discuss or attempt to persuade you or, heaven forbid, learn something. And some issues – like the bond election – are discussions better left to those who actually live in Surprise.

By contrast, this old-fashioned, paper-and-ink publication arrives once each week on more than 32,000 driveways – every one of which is actually here in your community.

Anonymous responses do not get printed in the letters to the editor section. If someone wants to take you on, they must step up with the courage and accountability of a real, flesh-andblood human adult to do so. As an added bonus you won’t get in online forums, I will not reprint any letters containing ALL CAPITAL LETTERS OR DOZENS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!

What’s that about anyway? It’s the digital equivalent of an angry child wandering uninvited into a discussion waving their arms and shouting nonstop at the top of their lungs.

Our letter policy states simply: “We encourage letters while retaining the right to edit for clarity, brevity, relevance and fairness.”

So, please. Check out this opinion section each week if you don’t already.

Read it. Own it. Join in a civil and thoughtful discussion. Or start a new one.

Because, in the end, your voice will always be the most valuable and interesting thing we can print on these pages.

Editor’s note: Matt Roy is News Editor of Surprise Today.