Welcome to Tennessee Press Association Online

*Access to publishers only.

Directory information for TPA member newspapers may be found under "Newspapers Online" or by calling to order your copy of the 2009 Tennessee Newspaper Directory today. ($40 cover price waived for members and clients.)

State Press Contests deadline is Feb. 8, 2010
Changes will be implemented in the University of Tennessee-Tennessee Press Association State Press Contests for 2010. The TPA Board of Directors acted on the proposed changes recommended by the Contests Committee during their Dec. 16 teleconference. Some of the changes are the result of improvements suggested by contest entrants. continuation 2010 Entry Packet
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More people will read a newspaper today than watched the Super Bowl
Following is a link to a wonderful newspaper promotion ad that I encourage each of you to download and run following Sunday's Super Bowl. It points out that more people will read a newspaper on any given day than watch the big game itself!

There are ads available in both color and black/white, and there are two versions: one for newspapers that print on Mondays and ones for those that do not.

These self-promotion ads have been made available free of charge by The Newspaper Project, a coalition of newspaper groups that advocate the future of newspapers. The Newspaper Project grants permission to run the ads and also to add your newspaper's logo if desired. The ads are being hosted on SNPA's Web site. More information on The Newspaper Project can be found at newspaperproject.org.

Thanks, and Happy Super Bowl!
Greg M. Sherrill
TPA Executive Director

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Winter Convention is Feb. 10-12
The 2010 TPA Winter Convention and Press Institute is scheduled for Wednesday through Friday, Feb. 10-12, at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Nashville. Registration packet Convention programming includes a forum with Tennessee’s gubernatorial candidates, an opening reception to which legislators are invited and Drive-In Training.

Drive-In Training is only $85 per person!
If you find the Drive-In Training program appealing, but could not attend other parts of the convention, TPA has an option for you. TPA is offering registration to the Drive-In Training sessions for $85 per person and includes lunch. Registration forms Drive-In Training details

Special offer for college students
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Judges needed Feb. 25 and 26, advertising and news/editorial contests to be judged
TPA members are needed to judge Illinois Press Association's contests. The ad contest will be judged in Nashville. The news/ed judging will again be split between sites in Nashville and Knoxville. Details follow. Please contact Robyn Gentile if you can serve as a judge. rgentile@tnpress.com or (865) 584-5761, ext. 105

Thursday, Feb. 25 • Nashville
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. News/Ed Judging
at the Radisson Nashville Airport Hotel

Friday, Feb. 26 • Nashville
9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Advertising Contest Judging
at the Radisson Nashville Airport Hotel

Friday, Feb. 26 • Knoxville
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. News/Ed Judging
at the TPA headquarters

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Bylaws Committee to Propose Amendment
The TPA Constitution & Bylaws Committee will propose an amendment to Article IX of the TPA Constitution at the upcoming TPA board of directors meeting Feb. 10 in Nashville.

It specifically proposes that the words "full-membership" be replaced with "participating member", meaning future amendments be approved by a two-thirds majority of the voting membership, rather than a two-thirds majority vote of the full membership. details
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Sunshine Week coming up in March, nominate a local hero deadline is Feb. 28
http://sunshineweek.org/About.aspx
Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Celebrated in mid-March, the 2010 dates are March 14-20.
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NIE Week, March 1-5, guide and tools available
Critical Thinking Through Core Curriculum:
Using Print and Digital Newspapers
Newspaper In Education Week is celebrated annually during the first full school week of March. For 2010, the NAA Foundation has created a teacher's guide, an in-paper ad and a Web site banner ad. Everything can be downloaded free of charge. link to naa.org
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Free kids page on earthquakes
Content That Works, producers of Kid Scoop, is offering a page on earthquakes free of charge.

The page contains:
· Earthquake news
· How kids can help
· What makes an earthquake
· Where is Haiti?
In addition there are a series of worksheets that teachers can use in their classrooms or parents can use in the home.

All of the above is at no charge and available for use in print and online.
Contact Dan Dalton at dan@contentthatworks.com or 909-793-9890

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It's our job to wake the dead
By Victor Parkins, TPA President

As reporters, editors and publishers, it’s our job to inform our readers that newspapers are far from dead.

Newspapers across the country have been their own worst enemy over the past two or three years. continuation

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TPS provides sample letters for reaching political ad dollars
By Greg Sherrill, TPA Executive Director/TPS Executive Vice President

This is an important mid-term political year, as well as being a gubernatorial showdown in our own state.

Unfortunately, the past several election cycles have seen significant declines in political advertising in newspapers. Many speculate that it's because candidates know that newspapers will likely run campaign and platform information as news (for FREE.) Newspapers have the unique ability to deliver in-depth information that broadcast and outdoor cannot. And when it comes to reaching rural and non-metro counties, newspapers have the edge!

I know many of you will be visiting or hosting candidates at your papers in the upcoming weeks. At the request of the TPS Board of Directors, our sales agents have drafted some letters that you may use for contacting candidates and/or their campaigns in your local races. Link to four letters These letters explain the benefits of using print advertising in their campaign's media mix, and could be a good way to get your foot in the door or at least start a dialogue about the effectiveness of newspaper advertising.

TPS is reaching out to Tennessee's gubernatorial candidates in hopes of securing more print advertising for you, our stockholder newspapers. Please keep TPS in mind as a resource for any candidate and/or campaign that may wish to advertise in many newspapers across our state.

Thanks for your help in representing the newspaper industry of Tennessee. Happy selling!
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Oppmann appointed TPA Director of District Six
Andrew Oppmann, publisher of The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, and The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro, has been appointed Director of TPA District Six. The position was vacated by Ellen Leifeld, former publisher of The Tennessean, who retired in November. continuation

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Heartland Publications to complete financial restructuring under Chapter 11
Heartland Publications LLC, which operates 50 newspapers in nine states including the Macon County Times in Lafayette, Tenn. and The Claiborne Progress in Tazewell, Tenn. announced Dec. 22, the Court approval of all of its "first day" motions. Heartland earlier announced that it had reached agreement with the majority of its first-lien lenders on a financial restructuring and filed voluntary petitions with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to enter Chapter 11 protection. story at heartlandpublications.com

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Federal shield bill passes Senate Judiciary Committee
The Senate Judiciary Committee today voted to present the federal media shield bill to the full Senate, a new milestone this year for legislation that has been tabled, debated and amended for months in the committee. continuation at rcfp.org

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable
A federal shield law, The Free Flow of Information Act, has finally passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on its 17th attempt to get a vote. But that passage did not come without sometimes heated debate on a string of amendments by Republicans and one Democrat, most of which were voted down.link to story
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Order your 2010 Press Credentials
TPA will send membership materials have been mailed. Among the items will be the traditional paper press cards. Since 2006, the plastic identification style has been available and has grown more popular. You can now pre-order your 2010 press cards. Order form

Additional items in the membership materials are 2010 calendar strips, press decals for windshields, the 2010 logo and a member services guide. Directories will be mailed separately in mid-January.

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2010 Dues payment option allows you to use ad revenue instead of cutting a check
Tennessee Press Association is partnering with Tennessee Press Service to offer members an alternative to cutting a check to TPA dues. Since most newspapers receive much more than their annual TPA dues amount through TPS advertising placement, publishers will be able to opt to have the 2010 dues amount deducted from TPS payments. If this option is selected, TPS will automatically resume payments to the newspaper once the dues amount has been satisfied.

An authorization form for this option will be sent with TPA dues. To take advantage of this option, a publisher will need to complete the authorization form and return it to TPA no later than Jan. 25.

Are you earning to your full potential?
Please take a moment to make sure that your newspaper is participating in both the TPS Statewide Classifieds and the 2x2/2x4 Network products. The quarterly rebate checks to participating newspapers over the course of a year are more than enough to cover TPA dues for most newspapers! For more information on Network programs, please contact Beth Elliott at (865) 584-5761.
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Newseum CEO issues a call to action to newspapers
Charles Overby, CEO of the Newseum and Freedom Forum urges the newspaper industry to Act, Believe, Compete, Differentiate and Evolve for the Future. complete article
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How Much Stimulus Funding is Going to Your County?
by Jennifer LaFleur, Dan Nguyen, Michael Grabell, and Jeff Larson
http://projects.propublica.org/recovery
We’ve taken all the data used on the government’s stimulus Web site, Recovery.gov, cleaned out the cobwebs and added thousands of records the feds didn't include — the law doesn't require all recipients to report to Recovery.gov — to create the most comprehensive publicly available analysis of stimulus spending that we know of.

Type in your county or click on your state to find local projects, and check out how per capita spending compares with poverty, income and unemployment in your area. http://projects.propublica.org/recovery
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Largest newspapers in Tennessee form collaboration
From Jack McElroy's blog, "The Upfront Page"
The "Big Four" newspapers in Tennessee -- Memphis' Commercial Appeal, Nashville's Tennessean, Chattanooga's Times Free Press and Knoxville's News Sentinel -- have launched an initiative to cooperate in coverage of the 2010 governor's race and, perhaps, take on other journalistic projects in the future.

The collaboration is operating under the name Tennessee Newspaper Network. Its first effort, an examination of the tax returns of the candidates, begins publication Sunday. link to Jack McElroy's blog
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Newspapers DEAD? Print still big medium for advertisers
By Brian Steffens, National Newspaper Association

The report of my death was an exaggeration — Mark Twain

If I’m to believe the national media, newspapers are dead or dying. What do they base that on?

Paid circulation is down? How’s that different from broadcast TV viewership? Or magazine subscriptions? Or radio listeners? But I can’t recall many or any headlines or cable or Internet shout-outs heralding the passing of TV, radio or magazines. Ignored in the cacophony are the self-imposed cutbacks of inefficient distribution to outlying areas with few readers and fewer advertisers, or the growing number of free distribution newspapers. link to story on NNA.org

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HIPAA Resource for Reporters
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a law intended to make it easier for people to keep their health insurance when they change jobs. The law set standards for the electronic exchange of patient information, including protecting the privacy of such records. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued the Privacy Rule to implement that aspect of the law, and its Office of Civil Rights is in charge of enforcing it.

Since the Privacy Rule went into effect in April 2003, it has become more difficult for reporters to get information about individuals' health care. The Association of Health Care Journalists has a resource to aid reporters.

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Ads focus on the power of newspaper media
NAA presents a series of free, downloadable print and digital ads focusing on the power of newspaper media and the value newspapers offer to advertisers. Link to NAA's free ads

November's ad:

Surprise your advertisers with the truth. Give them the facts. When it comes to what is “in” online, it is newspaper Web sites. The latest ad in NAA’s series of ads about the value of newspaper media to advertisers focuses on the facts about newspaper Web sites including:

* 74 million unique visitors went to newspaper Web sites in September of 2009
* Newspaper Web sites garner a 38% share of online visitors
* Newspaper Web sites are the number 1 local site in 22 of the top 25 markets
* Newspaper share of local online advertising exceeds all other local Web sites

Newspaper Web sites are trusted, informative and popular. We need to make certain that advertisers know.

Additional ads promoting newspapers can be found at www.newspaperproject.org.

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Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame inducts five

Five individuals were posthumously inducted into the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame at a banquet ceremony on Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Knoxville. Inducted were: Sallie Rebecca (Pattie) Boyd (1867-1947) bio ; James E. Charlet (1908-1999) bio ; Roy Coleson (1901-1965) bio ; J. Neal Ensminger (1908-2001) bio and William C. Simonton (1899-1950) bio. The event was the fifteenth induction ceremony bringing the total number of inductees to 53.

For information on the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame, please visit the Web site: http://www.tnpress.com/halloffame.html.

Photo credit: Elenora E. Edwards, The Tennessee Press
Ensminger family members pose with the portrait of J. Neal Ensminger.

Photo credit: Elenora E. Edwards, The Tennessee Press
Charlet family members pose with the portrait of James E. Charlet.

Photo credit: Elenora E. Edwards, The Tennessee Press
Simonton family members pose with the portrait of William C. Simonton. Bill Simonton, second from left, is the son of William C. Simonton and a former president of TPA.

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Some people coming to their senses on sunshine
By Frank Gibson, TPA FOI Coordinator
This old-fashioned notion of sunshine being the best disinfectant continues to carry a lot of currency despite the penchant of many in government to want to keep secrets or restrict access to public records and meetings.

Information is power, and many in government at all levels continue to see having the ability to control information as the way to hang on to power. continuation

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TPA board approves free legal hotline access for 2010
One of the Tennessee Press Association’s (TPA) most valuable member benefits is access to the Legal Hotline. Thanks to TPA and the TPA Foundation, member newspapers will continue to receive access to the Legal Hotline as part of their membership for 2010. story

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Free circulation associate membership proposal put off
By Elenora Edwards, The Tennessee Press
The question as to whether Tennessee Press Association will elect to allow free-circulation news publications to become associate members has been set aside indefinitely. story

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Americans still turn to traditional news media first
By Gene Policinski, First Amendment Center

When it comes to a free press, Americans still like the idea — but after that, well, there are questions.

Most of us still depend on traditional news media — television, newspapers and radio — when it comes to learning of breaking news or finding out more about the big story, according to the just-released 2009 State of the First Amendment survey conducted by the First Amendment Center. continuation

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Updating public notices keeps information in newspapers
Since the inception of tnpublicnotice.com, a majority of our members have joined the effort to create a database of public notices found in Tennessee newspapers. One of our chief tools in fighting efforts to remove public notices from newspapers has been this site, giving Tennesseans the ability to search online for notices found in our newspapers.

When members fail to upload their notices, our argument to keep notices in newspapers is weakened. It’s important that every TPA member upload their public notices to this site. Most of our daily newspapers do an excellent job of uploading their notices each day. It’s easier to forget when publishing dates are further apart.

If you’d like to know if your paper is doing its part to keep public notices in newspapers, email Greg Sherrill at or Kevin Slimp at for a report on how frequently and how many notices your paper has uploaded.

Forces to remove public notices away from newspapers haven’t slowed down. It’s more important than ever to upload your notices with every issue of your newspaper.

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APME, AP, Sunlight offer help digging into Stimulus
APME is partnering with The Associated Press and the Sunlight Foundation on a national investigative project looking at the effectiveness of the billions of dollars of federal stimulus spending. A database you can use to look up projects in your area is available at apme.com. The site also contains questions you might pursue as you look into these projects. www.apme.com For more information about the Sunlight Foundation visit www.sunlightfoundation.com.

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Current legislation & the First Amendment
By Gordon T. Belt, First Amendment Center Library manager
In the 111th Congress, a number of bills being considered could affect First Amendment freedoms. The following summary provides brief explanations of these measures and their current status. link to Belt's summary on fac.org

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Reporters' Guide to Multimedia Proficiency available online
Mindy McAdams is a journalist, journalism educator and Web developer. She has compiled a Reporters' Guide to Multimedia Proficiency. Guide
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Debt retired on TPA building
Four years and two months after its completion, the building owned by Tennessee Press Association Foundation (TPAF) and leased to Tennessee Press Association (TPA) and Tennessee Press Service (TPS) has been paid off.

“I can’t think of any item addressed by the TPAF trustees during the planning retreat three years ago more important, besides the actual construction of TPA’s headquarters, nor more ambitious, than paying off the mortgage on the building,” said W. R. (Ron) Fryar, TPAF president. continuation
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Do you want campaign ads in your paper?
By Art Powers, TPA vice president for dailies
Publisher, Johnson City Press

Like most newspapers across the state, candidates for next year’s gubernatorial race have been dropping by the Johnson City Press to discuss issues in an attempt to set themselves apart from their opponents. In doing so they know we will write a story about their visit and report their responses to the questions fielded by our editorial board. We always do that as it is news for our readers. Candid photos always accompany the story. Of course, in subsequent months they will return one-by-one for more coverage as well as asking for our editorial endorsement since we are the only medium that does that anymore. continuation

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Americans rely on newspaper advertising as essential shopping tool
Newspaper Association of America

When Consumers Read Newspaper Ads, They Take Action
Arlington , Va. – Newspaper advertising remains the leading advertising medium cited by consumers in planning, shopping and making purchasing decisions, according to early data from a MORI Research survey of more than 3,000 adults. The findings, announced today by the Newspaper Association of America, provide conclusive evidence of the ongoing value newspaper ads deliver for marketers trying to reach consumers who are ready to shop and spend. full release

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Have a job opening?
Post your open positions and search for resumes in TPA's employment area at http://www.tnpress.com/employment.html.
Only authorized personnel from member newspapers can post jobs or review résumés. First time users will need to register with a user name and password. Once you complete your online registration, please contact Robyn Gentile, member services manager, for access—(865) 584-5761, ext. 105 or via e-mail to .

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Training videos online for members
TPS offers free training videos online for TPA members. New videos include five segments on Adobe Flash and a segment on new features in Adobe Creative Suite (CS4). Other topics include: InDesign, Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, QuarkXpress and OS X. The videos can be accessed through the training page at www.tnpress.com/training.html. A username and password are required. Contact TPA at (865) 584-5761 if you need the access information.

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First Amendment ads available
Former TPA President Tom Griscom has made house ads promoting the First Amendment available to TPA member newspapers. Click here to access the files.

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Find older TPA News
TPA news items moved from this home page may be found at TPA News

Save these dates

Feb. 10-12, 2010, TPA Winter Convention, Nashville

details on these events and other calendar items

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2010
Press credentials
  TPA now offers members a more
   professional press card.
   View details and order form

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TPA is a primary media sponsor of the Governor's Books from Birth Foundation Imagination Library project.