TPA Member Update December 7, 2023

• Mark your calendar for TPA Winter Convention, Feb. 21-22 in Nashville
• Judges Needed for TPA’s 2024 reciprocal judging state, please sign up by Jan. 9
• Courier Publisher Joe Hurd retires, newspaper acquired by Richardson Media Group Inc.
• Brownsville Press adopts former paper’s name Brownsville States-Graphic
• News people in the News
• Esposito named interim publisher of The Greeneville Sun
• Marina Waters named managing editor of Herald & Tribune
• Free webinars for TPA members
• Shaking up that old story list Dec. 14
• Grow News Advertising Revenue With Branded Content Jan. 11
• Changing your ad rates or frequency?
• Post your newspaper’s open jobs at www.tnpress.com

Mark your calendar for TPA Winter Convention, Feb. 21-22 in Nashville

Thursday kicks off with a TPA Foundation Board of Trustees Meeting. Educational sessions will follow. College students in journalism programs will be invited to attend the convention and their registration will be covered by a grant from the TPA Foundation. Thursday includes a luncheon followed by additional sessions.

The convention will begin on Wednesday with “A Day on the Hill” including meetings scheduled between TPA members and legislators throughout the day. The TPA Board of Directors will meet over lunch in the Cordell Hull Legislative Office Building. The annual convention opening reception, to which all convention attendees and state legislators are invited, will be held at 5:30 p.m. that evening at the offices of Holland and Knight, near the Capitol. Dinner will be on one’s own.

Sessions are being finalized, but include Open Government, Artificial Intelligence and Ethics, Revenue Ideas for Publishers, the Vanderbilt Poll, Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti and more. Convention details will be available on Dec. 15.

Judges Needed for TPA’s 2024 reciprocal judging state, please sign up by Jan. 9

TPA needs volunteers to judge the New York Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. Both editorial and advertising judges are needed. The judging will be done online. The judging period will begin around Jan. 15 and you will have two weeks to complete the assignment. Please help us meet our obligation to our reciprocal judging state. New York Press Association members will judge the Tennessee State Press Contests and Advertising/Circulation Ideas Contest for 2024.

If you can serve as a judge (both Newsroom and Advertising judges are needed), please sign up online. Or contact: Robyn Gentile at rgentile@tnpress.com or (865) 584-5761, ext. 105. Please volunteer to judge by Jan. 9^th.

Each TPA member who completes the judging assignment will receive a $25 gift card as a token of our appreciation for helping TPA to meet its judging obligation.

Courier Publisher Joe Hurd retires, newspaper acquired by Richardson Media Group Inc.

The Courier, established in 1884, is now under new ownership.
Joe and Annette Hurd sold Savannah Publishing Co. on Wednesday afternoon (Nov. 8) to Daniel Richardson and his wife Lena.
Joe’s mother and stepfather, Kate and Bill Craddock, owned the newspaper starting in 1957. Jim and Beth Thompson owned and managed a part of the newspaper, and the Hurds acquired ownership in full prior to Jim’s death in 2016.
“My family is proud to have been responsible for reporting the news in Hardin County for decades, and we’re pleased the new owners likewise come from a strong newspaper background,” said Joe Hurd, a retired Air Force lieutenant general. “It’s good to know I can retire from publishing and leave The Courier in good hands.” Continue reading at courieranywhere.com

The “Graphic” is back

By Carlton Veirs

Those who grew up here knew it as the Graphic, though its actual name was the States-Graphic. Stories, ads and photographs for nearly 100 years carry the States-Graphic name.

In 1984, new owner—Brownsville Publishing—headed by Lyle Reid and Carlton Veirs, wanted to brand the community’s most well-known news source to include its proud location. Thus, it became The Brownsville States-Graphic. In 2000, on this very same week, the company sold the newspaper.

In 2015, after 15 years of watching news coverage slip, The Brownsville Press was born because we believed the community needed a news source that fairly represented our community and reported the events of our time.

When we eventually bought The Brownsville States-Graphic again in 2017, we didn’t like the diminished reputation that had occurred over the years since we sold it, so we kept the name Brownsville Press following the merger.

With gratitude for our responsibility as the newspaper of record in Haywood County, we left the name “Brownsville Press” behind last week.

At this historic moment—our county’s 200^th birthday—we think The Graphic should reemerge.

So why change the name now?

The Graphic was our paper and is our paper. And that seems important as long-time Haywood Countians look into the future. We’re going to be changing; we wouldn’t want to stop any of that or even slow it down. But the fiber of our county must also be preserved, and we think having the Graphic back might be important to that.

The Brownsville Press has served its purpose.

So here it is—The Brownsville States-Graphic. You won’t see any changes except for the name, until you look at the new website. We’ve been working on making it easier to use for months. We decided to debut it along with the name change.

For a while, we’ll redirect those who type in brownsvillepress.com (or have it bookmarked) to statesgraphic.com. For the time being, you can get there either way. The goal with the new site is to make it easier to read and navigate. You’ll also find that we are posting more of the news and features in a format that’s reader friendly. Our page views topped 65,000, last month, so we know electronic delivery is important to you. We post multiple news stories almost every day, making the statesgraphic.com…The Brownsville States-Graphic…a virtual daily. There’s a daily newscast and a weekend news summary newscast, too. The website is available to all our subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber, please consider it. We depend on subscriptions and advertising to pay our bills. That’s the only income we have, and we are certain we provide great value.

Thanks for reading the Brownville Press, and thanks for continuing to read the Brownsville States-Graphic. We really enjoy letting you know what’s going on in Haywood County, and we take seriously our reputation for journalistic integrity.

News people in the News

Esposito named interim publisher of The Greeneville Sun

Adams Publishing Group (APG) has announced the appointment of Carl Esposito as interim publisher of The Greeneville Sun.

Esposito brings years of experience to the position, having previously served as the regional president for the Tennessee/North Carolina group of APG from 2017 to 2019 and publisher of The Daily Times in Maryville from 2010 to 2019. Continue reading at greenevillesun.com

Waters named managing editor of Herald & Tribune

Award-winning journalist Marina Waters has been named the new managing editor for the Herald & Tribune.

“I don’t know that I can even fully express how excited and grateful I am to be back in Jonesborough,” Waters said after Six Rivers Media made the announcement Friday. “It feels a bit like home to me. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to lead this paper to where it needs to be.” Continue reading at heraldandtribune.com

Online Media Campus webinars free to TPA members

Shaking up that old story list Dec. 14

Free for TPA Members with this code: TNPtraining Register

About the webinar: Tired of doing the same old story every year? You don’t have to be. This webinar challenges you to take that most boring annual story you feel committed to do and turn it into something fresh for your readers.

About the presenter: Lyle Muller is the Iowa editor for PolitiFact and professional adviser for Grinnell College’s student-run Scarlet & Black newspaper. A long-time Iowa news veteran, his previous work includes serving in various roles that included executive editor at The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA); executive director and editor of the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism; and politics reporting coach at The Daily Iowan. His reporting has been published in several newspapers and websites at the local, state, regional and national level.

Grow News Advertising Revenue With Branded Content Jan. 11

Free for TPA Members with this code: TNPtraining Register

About the webinar: What do news organizations like Shaw Local, Nola.com/The Advocate, the Seattle Medium, and the Dallas Voice have in common? These are all local news organizations that make hundreds of thousands of dollars on branded content advertising. In this webinar, you’ll learn from The Branded Content Project team about how small and medium-sized newsrooms can grow new advertising revenue with branded content and how your company can launch a branded content strategy that will bring in new revenue from existing and new advertisers. The Branded Content Project is a training program jointly managed by the Local Media Association and Local Media Consortium.

About the presenter: Penny Riordan is the Director of Business Strategy and Partnerships for the Local Media Association/Local Media Foundation. She runs the LMA Digital Club and the News Is Out LGBTQ+ collaborative. Penny also supports the work of Oklahoma Media Center and the Branded Content Project. Prior to joining LMA, Penny was on the corporate team at GateHouse Media, leading the company’s digital storytelling efforts and audience initiatives. Penny also worked at Patch.com and newspapers in Maryland and Connecticut.

Changing your ad rates, frequency or publication day?

If you have or plan to change your advertising rates, publication day or frequency, please send your updated rate card or information to Earl Goodman, egoodman@tnpress.com. Maintaining current rate information and publication frequency helps Tennessee Press Service to properly represent your newspaper.