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Publishers: Practice what you preach By David T. Thompson If there are two things I know about the newspaper industry, they’re (a) newspapers stick to their deadlines for advertising and news copy but don’t abide by deadlines when others set them and (b) newspapers don’t practice what they preach. We send ad rep after ad rep to local businesses and encourage them to run ads if they want to be successful. We encourage local clubs and civic organizations to run their notices in newspapers if they want their club activity to be successful. We preach to everyone the importance of using the newspaper to tell the public about themselves, their businesses, their clubs and organizations. But when it comes to promoting our own industry, or individual newspaper, well, that doesn’t carry the same weight. In my days as a publisher, I remember many times of pulling a “house ad” to get in a late ad. That late ad brought in money. The house ad didn’t. That’s probably still true — we have all the intentions of promoting our newspaper but when it gets to deadline time and there are some ads to fit in, “Pull the house ads” is the battle cry. Many, many years ago, the Newspaper Association Managers (NAM) developed National Newspaper Week. This is one week set aside each year to toot our own horns, to talk about the First Amendment and why it’s important not just to the media but to all Americans, to tell about what we do for our communities, to run articles talking about newspaper staff members, to talk about the reasons why advertisers need to use newspapers to promote their business, services and products. National Newspaper Week is always, well, most always, the first full week of October. It begins on the first Sunday of October and continues through the following Saturday. NAM’s role in this is to develop a media kit that gives newspapers camera ready materials to promote the industry and the local newspaper; proclamations from the President; stories about the importance of newspapers in everyday lives; editorial cartoons about the value of newspapers; ads to encourage readership. I found out last year what a massive job it is to put that packet together. Each year, one NAM member spends weeks, even months, developing the logo, rounding up writers to talk about the newspaper industry, coming up with ad ideas that promote the newspaper industry, and finding editorial cartoonists. The articles, ads and cartoons are done gratis. The selling point to get them to contribute is “Just think, your article/cartoon/ad will appear in newspapers in every state.” We had a Kentucky flavor to National Newspaper Week last year because the writers and cartoonists were all with Kentucky newspapers. This year, the media kit responsibility falls to Doug Crews, my counterpart with the Missouri Press Association. National Newspaper Week 2001 will be Sunday, October 7 through Saturday, October 13. The kit is being developed as you read this. The logo’s done and this year’s theme is: “Hometown Newspapers: We’re Here When You Need Us/We’re Here When You Read Us” What’s really discouraging is that few newspapers pay attention to National Newspaper Week. KPA typically orders 50 media kits to give to newspapers and we generally have 45 of them to throw away. If you want this year’s media kit, give me a call or send me an e-mail at dthompson@kypress.com and I’ll put you on the list. There’s no charge to you. KPA pays the fee to NAM. Two special events are scheduled during the week. One is “Newspaper Career Day,” scheduled for Thursday, October 11. The purpose is to tell high school and college students about potential careers in the newspaper industry. Contact your local school(s) when they open in August and see if you can speak to classes about newspaper careers. Plan a job fair. Schedule an Open House at the newspaper to invite the public to come in, meet the staff and see how your newspaper is produced. Every newspaper can do that. The other event is “International Carrier Day,” on Saturday, October 13. Less applicable to every newspaper, because several don’t have newspaper carriers, the day is still set aside to recognize and honor newspaper carriers. If you’re one who utilizes carriers to get the paper distributed, plan now to run your carriers’ pictures and names; encourage your subscribers to send in a letter about their carrier that you can publish in the paper. There are a lot of things you can do to promote your newspaper, whether or not you use the media kit developed by NAM. But start planning now for October 7-13. Commit now to “practice what you preach” by promoting your newspaper during National Newspaper Week 2001!”
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