February 24, 2012Circulation Training: Feb. 24 in St. Louis

If you have any interest in boosting your newspaper's circulation, plan to attend the "Growing Readers, Audience & Service: Circulation Training for Today's Newspapers" workshop on Friday, Feb. 24, in St. Louis.

During this interactive session hosted by the Missouri Press Foundation and Illinois Press Foundation, Steve Wagenlander will share industry leading best practices to increase circulation revenue, grow audience and improve overall customer satisfaction with your newspaper. Wagenlander also will update the group on the latest in email marketing efforts and how this can translate into revenue and audience growth.

The workshop will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sheraton Westport Chalet, 191 Westport Plaza, St. Louis. Cost is $40, including lunch, if you register before Feb. 17 ($50 after that).

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Wagenlander is the corporate director of audience development for The Evening Post Publishing Co. and director of audience development at The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. He is responsible for all marketing, niche publications, circulation and audience development functions at the company.

He is a frequent industry speaker and a faculty member for Inland Press Foundation Circulation academy. In 2010 Wagenlander was named Circulation Executive of the Year by the NAA.

A registration form can be downloaded at www.mopress.com/current_forms.php. Remember the $40 registration deadline is Feb. 17!

July 12, 2011Tickets Arriving in Mailboxes this week!

The chance to win a one-of-a-kind Missouri newspaper collectible is arriving in your mailbox this week!

Raffle tickets to win the Missouri Press Foundation Newspaper Quilt are coming to you! Missouri Press has mailed 10 tickets to every MPA member newspaper.

The flags of all current MPA member newspapers are featured on the handmade quilt, along with the Missouri Press Association and Foundation logos. The quilt features reproduction vintage fabric in an historic design to add to the nostalgia of the collectible.

The quilt was created by Linda Kay Butz of Abita Springs, Louisiana.  Linda Kay spent several months working on the project for Missouri Press Foundation.

Tickets are $10 each. We are asking each newspaper to purchase the tickets or sell them to staff members, and return the 10 stubs along with the tax-deductible donations to the Missouri Press Foundation.

Tickets will be sold until the Missouri Press Convention in Branson, and the quilt will be awarded during the Better Newspaper Contest Awards Luncheon on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011. You do not need to be present to win, although we hope you’ll be there!

This quilt is being raffled to raise money for the Missouri Press Foundation to support its projects, which benefit ALL Missouri newspapers. MPF projects include our award-winning Newspaper In Education program, Summer Intern Program, Better Newspaper Contest, Scholarship Program, MPA Newspaper Print Shop Museum and the Photojournalism Hall of Fame, among others.

To see pictures of each newspaper block on the quilt, click HERE. To download a raffle ticket to mail to Missouri Press Foundation with your donation, click Quilt_Raffle_ticket.pdf. Have questions? Contact Dawn Kitchell.

June 29, 2011New MPA Hall of Fame Members Will be Inducted in September

Six newspaper people, including a husband a wife who were pioneers in teh black press in St. Louis, will be inducted this fall into the Missouri Newspaper Hall of Fame.

The induction program will be Sept. 9 during the 145th annual Convention of the Missouri Press Association (MPA). Newspaper people from all over the state will gather for the meeting at the Hilton Branson Convention Hotel.

This will be the 21st group to be inducted into the Newspaper Hall of Fame, which was established by MPA in 1991.

This year's inductees are the late Melba and Nathaniel Sweets, longtime publishers of the St. Louis American: the late Norman J. Colman, second president of MPA; Don Warden, retired publisher of the Gasconade County Republican in Owensvile; Doug Davis, publisher of The Lamar Democrat; and Ron Jennings, a long-time reporter for The Sedalia Democrat.

Hall of Fame inductees or their families receive Pinnacle Awards in honor of their service to the Missouri newspaper industry and their communities. Plaques with their likenesses will join the permanent display of inductees in the MPA office in Columbia and in the student lounge in Lee Hills Hall at the Missouri School of Journalism.

Norman J. Colman

Norman Colman moved to St. Louis in 1852 after practicing law in Indiana for three years. He bought a farm, established a nursery and acquired an interest in a publication that he renamed Colman's Rural World.

Through 56 years of publishing "for Midwestern and southern farmers and livestock breeders," Colman became know as the "dean of agricultural journalism."

He called for cooperation between government, academic researchers, and farmers to imporve crop production. The weekly publication became the nation's most influention proponent of applying scientific ideas and management to agriculture.

Colman served as Missouri lieutenant governor in 1874, and he was appointed U.S. commissioner of agriculture in 1885. President Grover Cleveland elevated that office to cabinet level, making Colman the nation's first secretary of agriculture.

Colman was elected president of the National Editorial Association and in 1870-71 he served as the second president of MPA.

He died in December 1911. At his funeral, the minister said Colman "had done more than any other to lift the calling of farmers to the level of learned professions."

(Information on Colman is from the 1947 doctoral dissertation by George F. Lemmor.)

Doug Davis

Doug Davis and his wife, Rayma, have owned and published the Lamar Democrat since 1985. He had been sent to the newspaper by his employed, the Boone Group, a few years earlier because the newspaper had lost almost $100,000 the previous year, circulation had plummeted and merchants were boycotting.

Since earning his degree in business administration at the University of North Alabama, Davis had become a troubleshooter. He solved problems at the newspapers where he worked. And that's what he did in Lamar. He went to all the local civic and business leaders and told them they had the support of their newspaper and the newspaper wanted to be part of promoting Lamar.

But he didn't stop with fixing the newspaper. While serving on the City Council for 10 years, he led a swimming pool committee to the completion of the first water park in Southwest Missouri. He helped with the design of a community auditorium and with replacing the city landfill. Davis also worked for extension of the runway at the airport. He created five-year and 10-year capital spending plans for the repair and replacement of city infrastructure and helped lead the community's emergency preparedness.

The Democrat has a program to teach journalism to high school students and to provide scholarships for newspaper interns. The first student Davis hired was Russell Viers, who now is an international software trainer and an expert on Adobe products.

Davis has served on virtually every civic and service organization in Barton County, and he is on the Board of Governors of Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.

He is a past president of the Ozark Press Association and has served on numerous MPA comittees.

Ron Jennings

Ron Jennings wrote news, reviews and "people" features for The Sedalia Democrat for 35 years. He joined the daily in 1972, fresh from the Missouri School of Journalism, and well before retiring he became the "face" of the newspaper. Since 1990 Jennings has battled brain cancer with repeated surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, but he continued working until 2007.

In a letter supporting the nomination of Jenning to the Hall  of Fame, Democrat publisher Dave Phillips wrote, "Ron Jennings spent decades covering breaking news and reporting normal small-town events in Sedalia. But his true calling was in telling the stories of everyday people. His community connections ran deep and his love of Sedalia showed in his work."

Jennings was chosen to be the grand marshal of Sedalia's sesquicentennial parade. A local teacher and writer told about her experience driving the car in the parade.

"As we waited for the event to start, Ron had his own procession to his side of the convertible. Person after person -- legislators and dignitaries, but mostly 'regular people' of all ages --- came to greet him and share a memory."

On Jennings' 30th anniversary at The Democrat, U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton read a tribute to him into the Congressional Record.

"Mr. Speaker," Rep. Skelton read, "Ron Jenning has been dedicated to making the city of Sedalia and the state of Missouri a better place to live."

Melba and Nataniel Sweets

A year after its founding in 1928, The St. Louis American recruited Nathaniel Sweets, a Lincoln University graduate, to be its advertising manager. He quickly became business manager, and then in 1932 was named publisher, a position he help for more than 50 years.

Melba Sweets joined the newspaper in the early 1930s as editor and columnist. He gossip column "We're Tellin'" ran for more than 45 years.

In addition to keeping the Afro-American community informed and hiring young black reporters, Mrs. Sweets mentored them and prepared many to move on to national publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and Time magazine.

The Sweets established The St. Louis Cab Co. when black residents grew tired of not being able to hail cabs.

For mor than 50 years the couple initiated and promoted efforts to imporve the lives of black citizens in their community. Their campaigns against discrimination in hiring, promotion and finance are credited with moving St. Louis forward in the struggle for civil rights.

Nathaniel Sweets died in 1988, Melba in 2006.

Don Warden

Don Warden, whose family has published the Gasconade County Republican since 1949, served as president of MPA in 1991. He was the co-publisher and advertising manager for the weekly in Owensville before his brother, Tom, retired as the publisher and editor in 2001.

Befor returning to Owensville in the early 1960s, Warden worked for a printing company in St. Louis and for the Richmond Herald, a weekly in Ray County. In 1963, the Warden brother bought out their father and worked together for nearly 40 years.

The Wardens adopted quickly and new technology that would allow them to improve the newspaper. They were among the first in Missouri to switch from hot metal typesetting to offset printing and to using computers for news and advertising composition.

The Warden family traces its newspaper connections in Owensville to the 1920s. Warden's father worked at the paper during high school, and the Warden family purchased the Republican in 1949.

Don Warden retired in 2008 and turned the operation over to his son, Dennis, who is on the MPA board of directors.  

June 24, 2011Quilt Raffle Will Benefit the Missouri Press Foundation

Missouri Press has created a one-of-a-kind handmade collectible quilt that features the flags of all current Missouri Press Association newspaper members.

Newspapers' nameplates are grouped in 11 blocks around the center block, which features the Missouri Press Association and Missouri Press Foundation logos.

Pictures of each of the quilt blocks are at http://www.mopress.com/med_form_test.php.

The quilt measures 72” x 56” – a perfect size for displaying on a wall.

The quilt will be raffled to raise money for the Foundation to support its projects, which benefit all newspapers represented on the quilt.

Raffle tickets are on sale for each.

Tickets will be sold until the Saturday awards luncheon on Sept. 10 at the MPA Convention in Branson. The drawing will be held during the luncheon.

The winner will not have to be present.

Missouri Press will mail 10 tickets to each member newspaper. These can be sold to employees or the public or purchased by the newspaper. More tickets are available by contacting Missouri Press.

The newspapers will return the ticket stubs with the donations, and the stubs will be included in the drawing at the convention. Tickets also will be sold at the convention.

Purchased tickets are donations to the Foundation, so they are tax-deductible.

OLDER NEWS 

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