News

Registration is now open for the 2024 TPA Winter Convention.

The convention will begin on Wednesday, Feb. 21, with “A Day on the Hill” including meetings scheduled between TPA members and legislators throughout the day.   There will be a Concurrent TPA Board of Directors and Business session over lunch at the DoubleTree Nashville Downtown Hotel.   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 a venue near the Capitol.   Dinner will be on one’s own.

Thursday, Feb. 22, 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.

Sessions include Open Government, Giving Your Newsroom a Digital Boost, Revenue Ideas for Publishers, Tennessee leaders Lt. Governor Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Attorney General Skrmetti and more.

The convention will also have opportunities for industry vendors to participate with an exhibit booth.

The convention hotel is the DoubleTree Nashville Downtown Hotel, located at 315 Fourth Avenue North.   The convention rate is $259 plus tax and parking per night.  Contact Robyn Gentile, TPA member services manager, with questions at rgentile@tnpress.com.

Chattanooga Times Free Press wins Best of Show

The Tennessee Press Association (TPA) announced the winners of the 2023 Ideas Contest for advertising and circulation on Thursday, Oct. 12, during the virtual Revenue Summit for newspaper advertising and circulation staff members.

There were 405 entries from 20 newspapers in the 2023 contest, which has four circulation divisions and 41 categories. TPA partnered with the Virginia Press Association for the judging.

The 2023 Ideas Contest Best of Show was awarded to the Chattanooga Times Free Press for its August 2022 High School Football special section.

The First Runner-Up was awarded to the Brownsville Press for its entry in black and white ad “What happens when you don’t advertise?Very little.” 

The Second-Runner-Up was awarded to the Chattanooga Times Free Press for its self-promotion ad “High School Football is Back.”

The newspaper with the most awards is The Greeneville Sun with 52 awards, followed by the farragutpress with 32, and the Kingsport Times News with 20.

Darrell Richardson, advertising director of The Daily Times, Maryville who is also TPA first vice president and chair of the Advertising Committee, served as the emcee for the awards announcement. 

List of 2023 winning entries

https://u9k737.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2023_Ideas_Contest_Winners_Release.xls

Slideshow of 2023 winning entries (PDF 50 megabytes)

https://u9k737.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IDEAS_2023_Powerpoint_10.11.23.pdf

This marks the 83rd year of National Newspaper Week (NNW), which observes the importance of newspapers to communities.

The theme for 2023 is “In Print. Online. For You.” National Newspaper Week runs Oct. 1-7.

NNW is a project of the Newspaper Association Managers. This year’s kit is available now at www.nationalnewspaperweek.com.

The kit contains print and digital ads, editorials and editorial cartoons.

August 17, 2023

Veteran newspaper publisher Mark Millsap has been hired to serve in the roles of Tennessee Press Association (TPA) executive director and Tennessee Press Service (TPS) executive vice president. He officially begins on Sept. 11.

“We are extremely excited that Mark will be joining us and working on behalf of Tennessee’s newspapers,” said Dave Gould, TPS president. “His background and experience are a perfect fit. Mark will have very big shoes to fill following after Carol Daniels, who served the organizations so well, but we have no doubt he will be up to the task.”

TPA President Daniel Williams added, “I’m excited to work with Mark as the new executive director of TPA. He has an impressive background leading groups of newspapers, and I feel confident that will translate well to being the head of our organization. I look forward to getting to know him and getting to work.”

Millsap started his newspaper career at his hometown newspaper in Muskogee, Oklahoma as an advertising sales rep in 1996. Over the next 15 years, he climbed the advertising management ranks with Gannett and led advertising departments in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Montgomery, Alabama and Shreveport, Louisiana.

“I am excited to begin work as the executive director of the Tennessee Press Association and Tennessee Press Service,” Millsap said. “I have been a champion for newspapers for my entire career, and I will continue to advocate for their success.”

In 2011, Millsap joined Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. (CNHI) so he could return to Oklahoma. He took his first publisher’s job in Chickasha, Oklahoma. After three successful years, he was promoted to publisher of the Norman, Oklahoma newspaper. In 2017, he was promoted again to group publisher for CNHI Central Oklahoma newspapers.

Last year, he joined WEHCO Media as the general manager for Central Missouri Newspaper Group, managing the News Tribune in Jefferson City and newspapers in California and Fulton, Missouri.

Millsap was also active in the Oklahoma and Missouri press associations. He served on the Oklahoma Press Association Board of Directors for six years.

He is married to his high school sweetheart, Melanie. They have two adult children, daughter Makenzie and son Mason. Their family includes a basset hound named Molly.

The search to fill the TPA/TPS positions was conducted by TPS President Dave Gould, then-TPA President Chris Vass and TPA Foundation President Victor Parkins. The three also currently serve on the TPA Board of Directors. Millsap’s hire was also approved by the TPS Board of Directors, which is responsible for providing staffing for the organizations.

It is anticipated that Millsap will also be named to fill the Tennessee Press Association Foundation role of secretary/treasurer.

The Tennessee Press Association was founded in 1870-71 for the purpose of creating a unified voice for the newspaper industry in Tennessee. Today, TPA continues to provide assistance to its 131 members by monitoring legislative activities, providing training programs and providing regular meetings and forums to foster the exchange of information and ideas.

Tennessee Press Service was founded in 1947 to serve clients and to drive revenue to newspapers. Every TPA member newspaper is a TPS Stockholder.

“Newspapers are viable,” Millsap said, “and newspapers still have strong readership, both in print and digital versions. Local newspapers matter now more than ever.”

List of 2023 winners
Link to photos of first place winners with UT President Randy Boyd

FRANKLIN, Tenn.— The University of Tennessee System and the Tennessee Press Association (TPA) gave top honors to newspapers across the state during the 2023 Tennessee State Press Contests awards luncheon held at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Franklin. The UT System has been co-sponsoring the contests since 1940. 

The Tennessee Press Association Newspaper Contest celebrates excellence in all areas of journalism, including reporting, writing, photography and more. 

The Tennessean received the most overall wins, going home with 10 first-place awards. The Chattanooga Times Free Press won seven first-place awards, while the Kingsport Times News finished with six. 

The Carthage Courier, The Standard Banner, The Knoxville Ledger, the Kingsport Times News and the Tennessean won the top general excellence awards in their respective divisions at the association’s ceremony. Points were awarded for each entry and general excellence honors were based on the newspaper’s total points in their division.

“News organizations have an increasingly difficult responsibility to tell the stories that impact our lives – the good, and sometimes the not-so-good,” said Randy Boyd, president of the UT System, who presented the awards at the ceremony.  “We are fortunate in Tennessee to have outstanding reporters, photographers and designers who work with great enthusiasm and a genuine commitment to public accountability, and I truly appreciate the high standards you hold for yourselves in reporting in a fair and ethical manner.” 

As part of the annual contest, newspapers winning first-place awards in the categories of editorials, best single editorial and public service will receive $250 prizes from UT’s Edward J. Meeman Foundation.

The Meeman Foundation was established in 1968 at UT to fund the contest, provide professional critiques of journalists’ work and support journalism students and educators.

Each year, reciprocal judging is done with another state’s association. This year, the Virginia Press Association judged 1,077 entries from 71 of the Tennessee Press Association’s 131 member newspapers.