On Saturday, Sept. 17, an 18-wheeler filled with food and supplies headed north, from Okeechobee, Florida, to Franklinton, La.
The Okeechobee community has “adopted” Franklinton, a rural community that was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. Many Okeechobee News staffers were among the community volunteers who helped make the project a success.
Newspaper coverage of the project inspired a number of community members and organizations to participate.
Eric Kopp, Katrina Elsken, Lorna Jablonski, Dee Hamilton, Linda Cannon, Pete Gawda, Audrey Blackman, Karmen Brown and Angie Bridges donated their time before and after work, picking up boxes of donations from businesses, and sorting and packing canned goods and supplies during the week-long relief drive. Many other staffers donated food or supplies. Eric, Katrina, Lorna, Karmen and Angie also helped load the truck on Saturday, Sept. 17.
The hurricane relief effort was personal to Okeechobee News staffers who suffered their own hurricane losses last year. They know what the people in Franklinton are going through. The small town of Okeechobee made sure the residents of their adopted town knew that someone cared.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Florida publishes new magazine
By Judy Kasten
If there's one thing hotter than the weather in Florida, it's the real estate industry.
Florida, especially interior Florida is growing by leaps and bounds. Independent’s daily and weekly papers are attracting an increasing amount of advertising from real estate companies and related industries.
Several years ago, the Okeechobee News started the Lake Okeechobee Real Estate Magazine, monthly real estate magazine. This has grown over the past few years into a very attractive 28 page tab with 8,500 circulation. This magazine is inserted in the home delivery copies of the Okeechobee News on the first of each month and is free standing at businesses, racks and stores throughout Okeechobee County. Kay Sheedy is the team leader of the sales effort.
The continuing success of the Lake Okeechobee Real Estate Magazine led the Florida groupto consider a real estate magazine in the other communities where Independent has weekly publications.
The area in Hendry County served by the Clewiston News and the Caloosa Belle appeared ripe for such a product, as they were showing good growth in residential real estate. Based on this belief that an "underserved market" existed in real estate, plans for the Hendry GladesReal Estate Magazine were hatched.
The plan for the new publication is to cover the other communities around Lake Okeechobee, including Belle Glade, Pahokee, South Bay, Clewiston, Glades County, LaBelle and Immokalee, and eastward towards Lee County.
Papers involved in this project are the Sun, Clewiston News, Glades County Democrat, Caloosa Belle and Immokalee Bulletin. Unlike the Okeechobee magazine however, this new magazine would be free-standing only, distributed to businesses and stores in these markets.
The sales teams in the south lake office; Brenda Jaramillo, Wanda Graham, Melissa Agee and Lauren Adams, and the Caloosa Belle; Barb Calfee and Dale Conyers were involved in planning the new magazine and eager to start selling. Armed with samples of the Okeechobee magazine and a rate card, the sales staffs blitzed through their markets, aiming for a magazine to hit the streets the first Thursday in March. Kay Sheedy coordinated the sales efforts and Karmen Brown helped with production.
The advertisers' response to the not yet published magazine was phenomenal.
"We felt it was important to get our real estate publication on the street ahead of some competitors who were said to be planning their own real estate products for this underserved market," said Tom Byrd, Florida Operations VP.
"Another exciting thing about this project was the fact that we were able to mesh the existing local knowledge about our market and experience in Okeechobee with the planning template created by Chris Engel,” Byrd added. “This Model Guide for Real Estate Publications prepared by Chris was very helpful not only in organizing our thinking but in simplifying the decision making."
The goal was to launch the product with 12 pages and instead the first issue of the Hendry Glades Real Estate Magazine had 20 pages and several full color ads!
"The niche marketers creed, is 'identify a need and fill it', and we were able to bring this idea to market extremely quickly," Byrd said.
Response to the magazine once it hit the street has been great and we look for a larger magazine next month.
"The entire Florida advertising and circulation team did a great job of implementing the successful launch of the new real estate publication, Hendry Glades Real Estate Magazine", Byrd said.
If there's one thing hotter than the weather in Florida, it's the real estate industry.
Florida, especially interior Florida is growing by leaps and bounds. Independent’s daily and weekly papers are attracting an increasing amount of advertising from real estate companies and related industries.
Several years ago, the Okeechobee News started the Lake Okeechobee Real Estate Magazine, monthly real estate magazine. This has grown over the past few years into a very attractive 28 page tab with 8,500 circulation. This magazine is inserted in the home delivery copies of the Okeechobee News on the first of each month and is free standing at businesses, racks and stores throughout Okeechobee County. Kay Sheedy is the team leader of the sales effort.
The continuing success of the Lake Okeechobee Real Estate Magazine led the Florida groupto consider a real estate magazine in the other communities where Independent has weekly publications.
The area in Hendry County served by the Clewiston News and the Caloosa Belle appeared ripe for such a product, as they were showing good growth in residential real estate. Based on this belief that an "underserved market" existed in real estate, plans for the Hendry GladesReal Estate Magazine were hatched.
The plan for the new publication is to cover the other communities around Lake Okeechobee, including Belle Glade, Pahokee, South Bay, Clewiston, Glades County, LaBelle and Immokalee, and eastward towards Lee County.
Papers involved in this project are the Sun, Clewiston News, Glades County Democrat, Caloosa Belle and Immokalee Bulletin. Unlike the Okeechobee magazine however, this new magazine would be free-standing only, distributed to businesses and stores in these markets.
The sales teams in the south lake office; Brenda Jaramillo, Wanda Graham, Melissa Agee and Lauren Adams, and the Caloosa Belle; Barb Calfee and Dale Conyers were involved in planning the new magazine and eager to start selling. Armed with samples of the Okeechobee magazine and a rate card, the sales staffs blitzed through their markets, aiming for a magazine to hit the streets the first Thursday in March. Kay Sheedy coordinated the sales efforts and Karmen Brown helped with production.
The advertisers' response to the not yet published magazine was phenomenal.
"We felt it was important to get our real estate publication on the street ahead of some competitors who were said to be planning their own real estate products for this underserved market," said Tom Byrd, Florida Operations VP.
"Another exciting thing about this project was the fact that we were able to mesh the existing local knowledge about our market and experience in Okeechobee with the planning template created by Chris Engel,” Byrd added. “This Model Guide for Real Estate Publications prepared by Chris was very helpful not only in organizing our thinking but in simplifying the decision making."
The goal was to launch the product with 12 pages and instead the first issue of the Hendry Glades Real Estate Magazine had 20 pages and several full color ads!
"The niche marketers creed, is 'identify a need and fill it', and we were able to bring this idea to market extremely quickly," Byrd said.
Response to the magazine once it hit the street has been great and we look for a larger magazine next month.
"The entire Florida advertising and circulation team did a great job of implementing the successful launch of the new real estate publication, Hendry Glades Real Estate Magazine", Byrd said.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Purposeful Neutrality
Journalists don’t pitch, catch, bat or judge
Chief Justice nominee John Roberts recently equated a judge’s role to that of the umpire at a baseball game: not to pitch, catch or bat the ball, and not even to make the rules --- but to interpret the rules. It’s an interesting distinction.
Similarly, it’s important for those of us in journalism to understand our role --- and far too many don’t! Our job is not to pitch, catch or bat in the ballgame of civic life. Too many journalists fall into the mistaken belief that they are part of the local power structure, or that their job is to sit in judgment.
Actually, ours is a higher calling. We serve through journalism --- and good journalism can’t be a part of any power structure. Good journalism is humble. It helps a community make informed decisions. But it shouldn't attempt to influence outcomes except by providing trustworthy information, even-handed reporting, and fair-minded facilitation of the community's forum for discussion.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist and media critic Ben Bagdikian (who also served two terms as a trustee of Independent’s non-profit holding company) had this to say: "Letting a maximum number of views be heard regularly is not just a nice philosophical notion. It is the best way any society has yet discovered to detect maladjustments quickly, to correct injustices, and to discover new ways to meet our continuing stream of novel problems that rise in a changing environment."
That’s a need we’re filling with our newspapers, with newszap.com, and with the Public Issues forums we’re providing to our communities at newszap.com. But we can’t play that role unless we do it with a full commitment to purposeful neutrality. The national media is abandoning even the pretense of neutrality, apparently as part of their marketing and profit strategies. I fear this is a huge mistake.
Journalists should not be participants in the news we cover. But try telling that to the network celebrity newsreaders.
Our job should be to facilitate the public’s discussion of public issues, not to dominate the discussion. But try telling that to power-seeking publishers, columnists and editorial boards.
At Independent, we’re trying to prove the merits of keeping journalism pure, independent, humble and neutral. And by doing this successfully even in smaller communities (where the pressures to take sides can be most pervasive), it can be a sterling example indeed.
Pure, independent, humble and neutral journalism requires restraint and ego control, but it’s important, exciting and rewarding.
Without journalism, decisions are made in the darkness of ignorance or manipulation instead of the enlightenment of objective knowledge and consideration of opposing viewpoints. Without journalism, a community’s "social relationships" can be nasty, with little chance of progressing to mutual caring, shared ideals and cooperation.
Journalism can be the conduit that allows people to talk to one another, share their dreams and concerns, develop a sense of caring and a sense of community, celebrate successes and discuss what's wrong and what might be done to make things better. (But if the community’s newspaper or website takes side or dominates the debate, it can’t be trusted as the conduit.)
Some of what we do can seem pretty mundane, like simply letting people know about the routines of community activities: who's meeting when and where, about what, and where goods can be purchased and services obtained. Some of it can be inspiring, like encouraging readers to discuss who's doing wonderful things in the community. Some of it can be heart-breaking --- who's suffering, who's hungry, who's lonely, who's dying. Some of it can be pretty frustrating: when communities pull apart instead of together, when people shout at one another without listening, when some battles are won with power instead of logic, selfishly instead of with mutual respect and a sense of fair play.
But all of what we do is vital to the community --- the mundane, the heart-breaking and the frustrating. It's part of the ongoing process that allows communities to form, to become worthwhile and even to aspire to greatness.
The best journalists are those that see themselves as humble servants of the evolving community and as purposeful facilitators of an ongoing political process --- not as part of the current community leadership, and not as power players in the politics of the moment.
Chief Justice nominee John Roberts recently equated a judge’s role to that of the umpire at a baseball game: not to pitch, catch or bat the ball, and not even to make the rules --- but to interpret the rules. It’s an interesting distinction.
Similarly, it’s important for those of us in journalism to understand our role --- and far too many don’t! Our job is not to pitch, catch or bat in the ballgame of civic life. Too many journalists fall into the mistaken belief that they are part of the local power structure, or that their job is to sit in judgment.
Actually, ours is a higher calling. We serve through journalism --- and good journalism can’t be a part of any power structure. Good journalism is humble. It helps a community make informed decisions. But it shouldn't attempt to influence outcomes except by providing trustworthy information, even-handed reporting, and fair-minded facilitation of the community's forum for discussion.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist and media critic Ben Bagdikian (who also served two terms as a trustee of Independent’s non-profit holding company) had this to say: "Letting a maximum number of views be heard regularly is not just a nice philosophical notion. It is the best way any society has yet discovered to detect maladjustments quickly, to correct injustices, and to discover new ways to meet our continuing stream of novel problems that rise in a changing environment."
That’s a need we’re filling with our newspapers, with newszap.com, and with the Public Issues forums we’re providing to our communities at newszap.com. But we can’t play that role unless we do it with a full commitment to purposeful neutrality. The national media is abandoning even the pretense of neutrality, apparently as part of their marketing and profit strategies. I fear this is a huge mistake.
Journalists should not be participants in the news we cover. But try telling that to the network celebrity newsreaders.
Our job should be to facilitate the public’s discussion of public issues, not to dominate the discussion. But try telling that to power-seeking publishers, columnists and editorial boards.
At Independent, we’re trying to prove the merits of keeping journalism pure, independent, humble and neutral. And by doing this successfully even in smaller communities (where the pressures to take sides can be most pervasive), it can be a sterling example indeed.
Pure, independent, humble and neutral journalism requires restraint and ego control, but it’s important, exciting and rewarding.
Without journalism, decisions are made in the darkness of ignorance or manipulation instead of the enlightenment of objective knowledge and consideration of opposing viewpoints. Without journalism, a community’s "social relationships" can be nasty, with little chance of progressing to mutual caring, shared ideals and cooperation.
Journalism can be the conduit that allows people to talk to one another, share their dreams and concerns, develop a sense of caring and a sense of community, celebrate successes and discuss what's wrong and what might be done to make things better. (But if the community’s newspaper or website takes side or dominates the debate, it can’t be trusted as the conduit.)
Some of what we do can seem pretty mundane, like simply letting people know about the routines of community activities: who's meeting when and where, about what, and where goods can be purchased and services obtained. Some of it can be inspiring, like encouraging readers to discuss who's doing wonderful things in the community. Some of it can be heart-breaking --- who's suffering, who's hungry, who's lonely, who's dying. Some of it can be pretty frustrating: when communities pull apart instead of together, when people shout at one another without listening, when some battles are won with power instead of logic, selfishly instead of with mutual respect and a sense of fair play.
But all of what we do is vital to the community --- the mundane, the heart-breaking and the frustrating. It's part of the ongoing process that allows communities to form, to become worthwhile and even to aspire to greatness.
The best journalists are those that see themselves as humble servants of the evolving community and as purposeful facilitators of an ongoing political process --- not as part of the current community leadership, and not as power players in the politics of the moment.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Sussex Post
By Andy West
Managing Editor, Delmarva Group
The Sussex Post has been sporting a new flag and a new attitude.
Earlier this year, the Sussex Post’s News Plan was re-written, better defining the newspaper’s unique position as the only weekly in a crowded market to serve all of the Indian River School District.
The goal was to position the 20,000 circulation newspaper and its online services as the must-reads in central Sussex County, focusing heavily on news from the Indian River School District and the communities within its boundaries.
The Sussex Post is uniquely positioned as the only paper with distribution throughout the Indian River School District. Its neighboring competitors have limited coverage areas, with one concentrating on news in Georgetown and others concentrating on news from the Quiet Resorts in the southeastern portion of the county.
It’s no small undertaking for the news, advertising and delivery teams.
The Indian River School District covers 360 square miles and its population continues to grow. The district’s student population stands at more than 7,600 students, up nearly 15 percent over the past decade.
“All feedback has been positive,” said Sussex Post News Editor James Diehl.
James, who lives in Seaford, joined the Sussex Post in January after returning to the area from Indiana. His previous experience with one of the Post’s competitors allowed him to hit the ground running. He made visiting the schools’ leaders and other community leaders a top priority, asking for their ideas and contributions.
The key to our success has been finding stories of interest to everyone in the readership area, particularly students and parents in the school district.
“We strive to have two or three school district stories in each edition,” James said.
The Sussex Post newspaper and its supplementary online services at newszap.com appeal to the large majority of readers throughout the district each week, striving to have great lead stories on development, growth, schools, business, agriculture and community affairs. The area, once predominantly farmland, has been experiencing a huge housing boom as people flock to Sussex to enjoy low property taxes and life along the river.
The newspaper staff has increased coverage in the communities within the district, not only with staff-generated material but also with a greater amount of submitted news, including news gathered from community blogs and links.
To draw readers into the Sussex Post, a flag change was in order. Webmaster and volunteer graphic artist Linda Snyder stepped in to help. She came up with several scenarios and one, the playful mallard, was a surprise choice that really spoke volumes about the area the paper serves. So many people are drawn to Sussex County for its rural setting and scenic beauty along the banks of the Indian River.
Kitt Parker, a native Sussex Countian, has been the News Services arm of the Sussex Post and The Leader & State Register since January. More and more people are filling the sussexpost@newszap.com e-mail in-box with submissions.
“There’s a lot more than when we started,” said Kitt.
The weekly newspaper is the only source for a complete Indian River schools calendar. Getting one started required calls and reminders to key contacts at each school. Now, we’re getting lots of submissions.
Sports, too, saw a huge increase in content.
Jeff Mitchell, another Sussex County native and graduate of Delaware Technical and Community College-Owens Campus in Georgetown (right in the heart of the Sussex Post territory), joined the staff part-time in the summer.
His mission is to cover scholastic and community sports in the area. The Sussex Post’s coverage area is home to a 600-plus member youth soccer program (River Soccer Club), three Little Leagues (Georgetown, Millsboro and Roxana), two Pop Warner football programs (Georgetown and Lower Sussex) and three high schools (Indian River, Sussex Central and Sussex Tech).
“The sports content adds to the legitimacy of the paper now,” said James.
With increased news and advertising content, the Sussex Post has been averaging 20 pages per edition, up from 12 and 14 pages from last year. The percentage of space has been about 40 percent editorial.
Doris Shenton and Joyce Ramsey are advertising managers for the paper. Nancy Niblett and Jenny Keim serve on the advertising services side.
“The advertisers are pleased with circulation, readership and most importantly the news content which is always up to date and has the local flavor which all the Sussex Countians love to read,” said Doris, who has been selling advertising for the Sussex Post for about eight years.
Doris Shenton
“The Post prides itself on news content and making the readers aware of the sports and local activities in the area,” said Doris. “Just recently the Post went to being paid on the newsstand which is giving proven readership thought out the communities.”
Joyce Ramsey
In April, the Sussex Post discontinued the practice of bulk drops at retail locations in favor of selling the newspaper for 50 cents per copy at newsstands and vending machines. However, delivery continues to be free to thousands of homes in Georgetown, Millsboro, Selbyville, Milville, Clarksville and Dagsboro.
”We purchased 35 used vending machines, had them repainted and the Sussex Post Logo put on them,” said Don Clendaniel, distribution manager. “Locations had to be found for the 35 vending machines and 21 more stores to handle the Sussex Post. We are currently putting an average of nine papers in each store location and 92 papers in each vending machine. There is a total of 16,320 free home delivered, giving us a total of 20,000 Sussex Post delivered each week.
“This was a major project which involved the setup of the vending machines, mapping the home delivery routes, finding locations for the vending machines and stores,” Don said.. “Zed Postles and Bill Dodd played a major part in getting this project up and running.”
The synergy created with improvements to news, advertising and delivery has been very positive.
“Over the years, I can only say that I have seen this area grow and the Sussex Post has really handled the growth and the future of the area,” said Doris. “The Sussex Post is the BEST newspaper in Sussex County.”
Managing Editor, Delmarva Group
The Sussex Post has been sporting a new flag and a new attitude.
Earlier this year, the Sussex Post’s News Plan was re-written, better defining the newspaper’s unique position as the only weekly in a crowded market to serve all of the Indian River School District.
The goal was to position the 20,000 circulation newspaper and its online services as the must-reads in central Sussex County, focusing heavily on news from the Indian River School District and the communities within its boundaries.
The Sussex Post is uniquely positioned as the only paper with distribution throughout the Indian River School District. Its neighboring competitors have limited coverage areas, with one concentrating on news in Georgetown and others concentrating on news from the Quiet Resorts in the southeastern portion of the county.
It’s no small undertaking for the news, advertising and delivery teams.
The Indian River School District covers 360 square miles and its population continues to grow. The district’s student population stands at more than 7,600 students, up nearly 15 percent over the past decade.
“All feedback has been positive,” said Sussex Post News Editor James Diehl.
James, who lives in Seaford, joined the Sussex Post in January after returning to the area from Indiana. His previous experience with one of the Post’s competitors allowed him to hit the ground running. He made visiting the schools’ leaders and other community leaders a top priority, asking for their ideas and contributions.
Sussex Post staff includes ad services staffers Nancy Niblett and Jenny Keim, news editor James Diehl and sports writer Jeff Mitchell (standing from left) and News Services writer Kitt Parker (seated).
The key to our success has been finding stories of interest to everyone in the readership area, particularly students and parents in the school district.
“We strive to have two or three school district stories in each edition,” James said.
The Sussex Post newspaper and its supplementary online services at newszap.com appeal to the large majority of readers throughout the district each week, striving to have great lead stories on development, growth, schools, business, agriculture and community affairs. The area, once predominantly farmland, has been experiencing a huge housing boom as people flock to Sussex to enjoy low property taxes and life along the river.
The newspaper staff has increased coverage in the communities within the district, not only with staff-generated material but also with a greater amount of submitted news, including news gathered from community blogs and links.
To draw readers into the Sussex Post, a flag change was in order. Webmaster and volunteer graphic artist Linda Snyder stepped in to help. She came up with several scenarios and one, the playful mallard, was a surprise choice that really spoke volumes about the area the paper serves. So many people are drawn to Sussex County for its rural setting and scenic beauty along the banks of the Indian River.
Kitt Parker, a native Sussex Countian, has been the News Services arm of the Sussex Post and The Leader & State Register since January. More and more people are filling the sussexpost@newszap.com e-mail in-box with submissions.
“There’s a lot more than when we started,” said Kitt.
The weekly newspaper is the only source for a complete Indian River schools calendar. Getting one started required calls and reminders to key contacts at each school. Now, we’re getting lots of submissions.
Sports, too, saw a huge increase in content.
Jeff Mitchell, another Sussex County native and graduate of Delaware Technical and Community College-Owens Campus in Georgetown (right in the heart of the Sussex Post territory), joined the staff part-time in the summer.
His mission is to cover scholastic and community sports in the area. The Sussex Post’s coverage area is home to a 600-plus member youth soccer program (River Soccer Club), three Little Leagues (Georgetown, Millsboro and Roxana), two Pop Warner football programs (Georgetown and Lower Sussex) and three high schools (Indian River, Sussex Central and Sussex Tech).
“The sports content adds to the legitimacy of the paper now,” said James.
With increased news and advertising content, the Sussex Post has been averaging 20 pages per edition, up from 12 and 14 pages from last year. The percentage of space has been about 40 percent editorial.
Doris Shenton and Joyce Ramsey are advertising managers for the paper. Nancy Niblett and Jenny Keim serve on the advertising services side.
“The advertisers are pleased with circulation, readership and most importantly the news content which is always up to date and has the local flavor which all the Sussex Countians love to read,” said Doris, who has been selling advertising for the Sussex Post for about eight years.
Doris Shenton
“The Post prides itself on news content and making the readers aware of the sports and local activities in the area,” said Doris. “Just recently the Post went to being paid on the newsstand which is giving proven readership thought out the communities.”
Joyce Ramsey
In April, the Sussex Post discontinued the practice of bulk drops at retail locations in favor of selling the newspaper for 50 cents per copy at newsstands and vending machines. However, delivery continues to be free to thousands of homes in Georgetown, Millsboro, Selbyville, Milville, Clarksville and Dagsboro.
”We purchased 35 used vending machines, had them repainted and the Sussex Post Logo put on them,” said Don Clendaniel, distribution manager. “Locations had to be found for the 35 vending machines and 21 more stores to handle the Sussex Post. We are currently putting an average of nine papers in each store location and 92 papers in each vending machine. There is a total of 16,320 free home delivered, giving us a total of 20,000 Sussex Post delivered each week.
“This was a major project which involved the setup of the vending machines, mapping the home delivery routes, finding locations for the vending machines and stores,” Don said.. “Zed Postles and Bill Dodd played a major part in getting this project up and running.”
The synergy created with improvements to news, advertising and delivery has been very positive.
“Over the years, I can only say that I have seen this area grow and the Sussex Post has really handled the growth and the future of the area,” said Doris. “The Sussex Post is the BEST newspaper in Sussex County.”
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