june 2012

WWW.ANANEWS.COM JUNE 2013

L. Alan Cruikshank will be honored during the Nati onal Newspaper As-sociati on’s 127th Annual Conventi oL. Alan Cruikshank, NNA’s 2013 Amos Award winnern & Trade Show, when he will be presented with the 2013 James O. Amos Award.

Recognized as the highest and most dignifi ed tributes in community journalism, the Amos and McKinney Awards are presented to a working or reti red newspaperman and woman who have provided disti nguished service and leadership to the com-

munity press and their community.Cruikshank, publisher of The Foun-

tain Hills Times, will receive the 2013 James O. Amos Award.

This award was established in 1938 in honor of General James O. Amos, a pioneer Ohio journalist and mem-ber of the Nati onal Editorial Associ-ati on—now known as the Nati onal Newspaper Associati on.

The award will be presented at the business luncheon Sept. 14, 2013, which will be held during NNA’s con-venti on in Phoenix, Az.

Past Amos award winners are listed at nnaweb.org.

Cruikshank will be recognized in the November issue of Publishers’ Auxiliary.

Established in 1885, the Nati onal Newspaper Associati on is the voice of America’s community newspapers and the largest newspaper associa-ti on in the country. The nati on’s com-munity papers inform, educate and entertain nearly 150 million readers every week.

Rep. Thomas Shope, R-8, and Rep. Phil Lovas, R-22, discuss the inner workings of the legislature during the ANA 2013 Legislati ve Recepti on.

NNA to honor L. Alan Cruikshank with Amos Award

Check out these upcoming journalism events in ArizonaThe Valley of the Sun professional

chapter of the society of Professional Journalists will hold their annual meeti ng July 11, 5:30 p.m. at SunUp Brewing, 322 E. Camelback. All are

welcome to att end.The American Press Insti tute’s pro-

gram “Growing Your Audiences and Growing Your Business” will be held July 15, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at

The Arizona Republic.The First Amendment Coaliti on of

Arizona will hold their quarterly meet-ing on July 25 at noon at the Phoenix offi ce of Perkins & Coie.

| June 2013 ■ ANAgrams

Mid-year update from the executive directorWith half the year already behind us, I am happy to report

that the financial position at ANA has seen a nice rebound. We have beat budget numbers for both the 1st and 2nd quarters and can now say that we are in a profit position. Network programs are beating last year’s numbers and show signs of resurging. We have mailed checks this week for mid-year pool payments to the network participating newspapers and these checks will see an increase.

The legislative session wrapped up mid-June and ANA and the lobbying team had another very successful session. We were able to push back and defeat any changes to the Public No-tice statutes and hold back any erosion on the public records front. Special thanks goes out to our Legislative Committee Chair, Ginger Lamb and ANA Lobbyist, John Moody for their untiring work for Arizona newspapers. The ANA Board and the Legislative Committee will work over the summer on our legislative agenda for the 2014 session. Watch for more on this later this summer.

The ANA staff has been working to continue to bring new revenue sources to ANA and we are proud to announce the addition of our partnership with GistCloud. GistCloud offers an Intermedia Press Release that incorporates video, audio, documents, photos, and web pages, along with multilingual content that is grammatically correct and technically ac-curate – forming a multimedia, multifaceted press release, equipped with instant broadcasting capability.

Have a client who needs a full-featured press release solu-tion? Visit http://arizona.gistcloud.com or call (602) 261-7655 ext. 108 for more information.

ANA also has partnered with the Colorado Press Associa-tion and Sync2Media to present Digital Advertising solutions

for newspaper clients. ANA can now place buys for display, mobile, tablet and custom e-mail blasts. The Sync2Media program allows a client to reach a targeted audience in many different formats.

Our Annual Convention for 2013 will be in partnership with the NNA, 127th Annual Convention & Trade Show. This meeting will be held at the Arizona Grand Resort, Sept. 12-14. Because of our partnership, Arizona newspa-pers can register for all the NNA training ses-sions and functions at NNA member rates. We strongly encourage you to attend this educa-tional…… program.

ANA will conduct our Annual Meeting prior to our Ad and BNC Awards Reception on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 5 p.m. The annual meeting is the time where ANA will elect it’s 2013-14 Board of Directors. Please call Paula if you have interest in serving on the ANA Board.

We will also be honoring one of our own with the NNA Amos Award being presented to Alan Cruikshank, Publisher of the Fountain Hills Times. Alan will be honored during the Saturday Awards luncheon at Noon on Sept. 14. Link to register for NNA at: http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1232153

The ANA Board of Directors will be meeting in Flagstaff on July 24-25 for a Board retreat. The retreat is an opportunity for the Board to reassess our goals and direction for ANA. Please contact a member of the Board if you have ideas or suggestions for the Board to consider.

BY PAulA cAsey | ARIzONA NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION

Arizona Newspapers Foundation

- PLEDGE CARD -Your pledge will fund scholarships and provide

resources to train Arizona’s next generation of journalists.

□ This is my pledge for the 2013 campaign.

□ $10 □ $20 □ $50 □ $100 □ Other:_________

□ Check enclosed. □ Bill Me Charge to: □ VISA □ MasterCard □ AMEX □ DiscoverCard No._________________________________________ Exp. Date________

Your name________________________________________ Signature__________________________ Date___________

Newspaper/Organization_____________________________ Address___________________________________________

June 2013 ■ ANAgrams |

Arizona papers both hit and miss with videoBY Perri colliNs| ARIzONA NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION

Video on newspaper websites has been trending upwards in the past 18 months.

According to a study by the mar-keting research consultant Ipsos Insight, 75 percent of all Internet viewers watch video clips of news, sports or commentary.

use ViDeo To eNHANce reGulAr FeATures

Many papers, however, aren’t able to go all out like national newspaper chains Gannett and Tribune. How-ever, much can still be accomplished on a minimal budget with basic equipment.

Take the Phoenix Business Journal, for example. They have implement-ed video on their website over the past few months.

“We use the videos to provide readers with more information and let them in on what and who we’re writing about,” said Digital Editor Adam Kress.

These videos are not hidden be-hind a paywall and are accessible to everyone.

The Phoenix Business Journal, a part of Advance Publications Inc., had their reporters trained by the corporate office on using their iP-hones to capture video while inter-viewing sources.

While the plan is to eventually have all the American City Business Journals incorporate video on their websites, “Phoenix is one of the markets leading the charge,” said Kress.

One way the Phoenix Business Journal is using video is in the week-ly “Executive Profile.” Executives are asked one question, such as, “What was your first job?” And the answer they give is used to tease the story to readers via social media.

“We’re taking readers inside the story and giving them additional

insight,” said Kress.Reporters use the Burst app for

iOS to quickly record and share videos. Most reporters handle their own recording and uploading, al-though right now there is an intern who helps out.

“It’s been very ‘un-buggy’ so far, so that’s nice,” said Kress.

They’ve also done longer, more traditional broadcast-like packages for high-impact stories and events. Those videos are edited in-house us-ing iMovie software.

sTArT smAllEarly last year, the Green Valley

News & Sun, a semi-weekly paper in southern Arizona, began experi-menting with video.

“It’s a relatively simple process,” according to Production Manager Graham Harrington.

Filmed with an inexpensive web-cam in the corner of the publisher’s office, two reporters give viewers the top headlines, remind them to pick up a copy of the paper and say a few words about their sponsor. There’s little to no editing involved, and after the headlines are filmed, they are uploaded to YouTube and shared on the newspaper’s website.

“It’s not that much extra work,” said Harrington. “Once it’s part of the workflow, it becomes second nature.”

In addition to each issue’s head-line and the occasional video from reporters on the scene, schools and community members are also welcome to submit videos as com-panion multimedia to stories, for example, security footage from a local bank after a robbery.

According to Harrington, Green Valley News began recording the headlines as a way to build rapport with readers and help them put re-porters’ names together with faces.

“We’re using it as another avenue to get info out there,” he said. Of course, as most of us in the journal-ism industry know, information is not free. Green Valley News offers advertisers the opportunity to spon-sor the headline videos and so far, they feel it has been successful.

Do wHAT works For your commuNiTy

The Navajo Times had been using video to provide readers with daily news updates, consisting of breaking news and daily headlines. That pro-gram lasted about 18 months before it was scrapped.

“It did not have the impact we thought it would have,” said Navajo Times Editor Candace Begody.

The staff didn’t have much training in video. Reporters often used the same script multiple times. In the morning, a reporter would call into local radio station KYAT-FM with the day’s headlines, then turn the cam-era on themselves, record the same info and upload it to YouTube.

Several factors played into the decision to fold the video updates, including staff intimidated by the technology, little training and slow, expensive Internet access on the reservation.

“We just didn’t have the resources or training,” said Begody.

She said there’s potential to make it better and more appealing to the staff and readers, but at this mo-ment they don’t have the time or manpower to fully devote to it like they want.

The video updates ended in De-cember 2012, but the Navajo Times continue to partner with the radio station.

“We would certainly love to revisit video in the near future,” said Begody.


Star sues TUSD over district’s refusal to name superintendent finalists

BY PATrick mcNAmArA | ARIzONA DAILY STAR

The Arizona Daily Star has sued TUSD to compel the dis-trict to release the names of finalists in its search for a new superintendent.

“The selection process here has an acute public inter-est,” said Dan Barr, attorney with Perkins Coie LLP, which filed the complaint in Pima County Superior Court today on behalf of the Star.

In addition to the general interest, Barr said the public has a right to know who the school district interviewed for the job.

TUSD announced on June 10 that H.T. Sanchez, interim superintendent of Ector County Independent School Dis-trict in Odessa, Texas, was the sole remaining candidate for the superintendent position of Tucson’s 50,000-student district. The board is expected to name Sanchez superin-tendent at tonight’s meeting, making him the sixth person to hold the post in the past decade.

TUSD hired the firm PROACT to manage the job search. The company initially corresponded with more than 60 applicants.

The list ultimately was reduced to four candidates, who the TUSD Governing Board interviewed individually in closed-door sessions on June 8.

Following the interviews, the governing board an-nounced that Sanchez was the sole candidate under con-sideration for the job.

The Arizona Daily Star requested the names, resumes and other application materials the four candidates pro-vided to the district. TUSD, however, refused to provide the requested information.

“All discussions and related documents held in executive session are protected from disclosure — (no documents available),” TUSD custodian of public records Imelda Carde-nas wrote in response to the Star’s request.

Subseqently, lawyer Barr also asked the district to re-lease the records to the Star.

In response to Barr’s June 12 letter, the district’s legal counsel, Nancy Woll, said the name of the only “seriously considered candidate,” Sanchez, was released.

“All applicants for this position were granted that their application would remain confidential through the screen-ing process and that their names and resumes would be disclosed ONLY if they were seriously considered candi-dates and if they agreed to be named as finalists,” Woll wrote on June 14.

Candidates the board interviewed in executive session were “seriously considered” and their names and applica-tion materials should be made public, Barr said.

He also said state law makes no distinction for the term “finalist.”

“They’re playing a cynical shell game,” Barr said.Barr argued that the documents, specifically the resumes

and application materials, existed before the executive session and wouldn’t reveal the substance of the private discussions. State law forbids the disclosure of specific details of executive session discussions.

He argued that TUSD, or any government, can’t claim documents that already existed become confidential once they are brought into an executive session.

“Imagine they brought a dictionary into an executive session, would the contents of the dictionary be confiden-tial?” Barr said.

“The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on this very issue 22 years ago and said the public has the right to know the names of candidates seriously considered for such an important taxpayer-funded posi-tion,” Bobbie Jo Buel, the Star’s editor, said Tuesday.

TUSD was notified June 17 about the Star’s intent to sue. The district was to be served later this morning.

In the lawsuit, Barr cites the 1991 Arizona Supreme Court case, Arizona Board of Regents v. Phoenix Newspa-pers, Inc., wherein the newspaper wanted to know the names of the candidates interviewed for president of Arizona State University.

In that case, the Board of Regents narrowed a list of 236 applicants to three candidates. The regents then provided the name of only one, saying the other two had dropped out.

The court ruled the names of candidates a public body seriously considers for a job should be made public.

“The public’s legitimate interest in knowing which candi-dates are being considered for the job therefore outweighs the ‘countervailing interests of confidentiality, privacy (and) the best interests of the state,’ ” the court ruled.

TUSD has violated Arizona’s public records law by failing to provide access to the requested public documents, Barr argues in the complaint.

The suit asks the court to compel TUSD to release the records and to pay the Star attorney’s fees associated with filing the lawsuit.

“Imagine they brought a dictionary into an

executive session, would the contents of

the dictionary be confidential?”

-- Dan Barr


If other newspapers are flirting with digital video, the Arizona Republic and the Dayton Daily News have already said “I Do” by joining a small but grow-ing group of media companies operat-ing combined newsrooms where every story is a multiplatform project.

In Phoenix, that means journalists from the Gannett Co.-owned Repub-lic, AzCentral.com and KPNX share a renovated newsroom equipped to produce stories for print, Web and broadcast. In Dayton, reporters for the Daily News and six other papers work alongside their counterparts in TV and radio at the Cox Ohio Media Center.

This kind of arrangement is what journalists imagined when they talked about convergence a decade ago. Such close partnerships may not be possible for every news organization, but Day-ton and Phoenix are useful case stud-ies for how the right technology and a little collaboration can grow video’s audience and revenue potential.

Both organizations are producing more digital video than ever before and marking it as a new platform for potential advertisers. Cox lists video as one its many digital ad services, and Gannett is aggressively wooing brands that have traditionally limited their video advertising to broadcast TV.

The daily production rhythms differ in Dayton and Phoenix, but they share one thing: The ability to produce more video for more platforms than ever before.

“Anything from a very rough video of a breaking news situation all the way up to documentary style,” says Randy Lovely, senior VP of audience develop-ment for AzCentral.com. “We’re able to get so much more in terms of sheer volume.”

The Phoenix merger began in 2010 with nearly a dozen work groups imagining how TV, Web and print journalists could work together. At the same time, Gannett began extensive

renovations to equip the AzCentral newsroom with a TV studio. In 2011, KPNX moved in.

“Gannett made the investment,” Lovely says. “At the same time, they’ve also given us the latitude to figure this out for ourselves.”

All of the reporters have iPhones and have received extensive video training. Photographers from the Re-public and videographers from KPNX, meanwhile, have access to a mix of equipment including traditional digital video cameras and DSLR cameras that can take high-resolution still images and video.

Those videos can be broadcast from the studio or from the field, and it’s not uncommon for AzCentral.com to have three live streams running at any given time.

In terms of viewership, the results have been astounding. In December, online videos receive about 500,000 hits, according to the metrics the newsroom gathers through Omniture and Sitecatalyst. By April, monthly video hits had reached 4 million.

That jump is partly due to gavel-to-

gavel coverage of the murder trial of Jodi Arias — the California woman who last month was convicted of killing her former boyfriend — but Lovely expects some of that audience to remain loyal to AzCentral.com once that story winds down.

“We really don’t know what normal will be until we get past that,” he says. “But we know we’ll be much better than what we started from.”

The Dayton collaboration also began in 2010, as part of a company-wide ef-fort by Cox to revamp how its journal-ists gather and distribute the news. The investment in facilities, training and technology was big, but Sean Dun-ster, the news technology manager for Cox Media Group Ohio, says it’s paying off.

The staff understands that, when news breaks, there are multiple ways to tell the story. What starts as a quick iPhone video could become a more polished digital video project shot on a DSLR by photojournalists. A reporter, meanwhile, might prepare a few min-

Converged newsrooms yield video lessonsBY meG HeckmAN | NETNEWSCHECK

The Arizona Republic and KPNX share a renovated newsroom equipped to produce stories for print, Web and broadcast.

Continued on page 6


Mobiles Republic, a global news syn-dication company, recently released the results from its 2013 survey of news reading habits.

The study, based off the responses of over 8,000 of its News Republic® app users, indicates that news con-sumption is rising; as the number of news outlets grows, so do readers’ appetites for accurate, multi-sourced and fresh news.

Here are key takeaways and the full infographic:

People are checking the news more frequently and for shorter amounts of time.

Forget news reading. Today, it’s all about “news snacking,” meaning people are checking the news more of-ten and typically on mobile devices. 75 percent of readers with smartphones and 70 percent with tablets check the news more than once a day.

It’s all about aggregators. According to the study, 73 percent of

those surveyed said they use aggrega-

tors intensively, up from 33 percent a year ago. Use of branded news applications (such as leading national dailies), on the other hand, decreased from 60 percent to 40 percent in the same period.

Social media is on the rise for check-ing news.

The report also indicates that people are increasingly checking sites like Fa-cebook and Twitter for news updates;

People aren’t news reading; they’re ‘news snacking’

BY sHerry yuAN | 10,000 WORDS

utes of iPhone video for TV before starting a written story.This kind of cross-training is a far cry from the workflow

that existed three years ago, when it wasn’t uncommon for four different reporters — print, Web, TV and radio — to make calls about the same story. Now, a single journalist is expected to handle breaking news for all four platforms.

Digital gets first priority, with reporters and photogra-phers using email and a file transfer system called Aspera to send information back to the newsroom.

“The bottom line is for breaking news — get something back to digital right away,” Dunster said in an email. “Then other video, audio and still photos will be available later

and used as needed.”Once the breaking news is reported, editors determine

what they need for each platform: a longer written story and still photos for print, a more polished video for TV or an audio segment for radio.

Video and other forms of multimedia are an important part of Cox’s overall revenue and audience engagement strategy, according to Q. McElroy, senior director of digital for Cox Media Group Ohio.

“Our strategy is simple,” McElroy said in an email. “Iden-tify the most effective ways to offer digital users the video they want while providing advertisers opportunities to reach this audience.”

Con’t from page 5: Converged newsrooms

Continued on page 7

Continued from page 5

Native American media conference in TempeThe Native American Journalism Association and Native

Public Media will co-host this year’s national conference, giving special focus to the latest innovations in the media industry and news developments in Indian Country.

NAJA and NPM are two of the most prominent Native media organizations in the United States and are excited to announce a partnership that will double their impact in 2013.

The national conference for media professionals inter-ested in improving their reporting on and delivery of Native news will be held at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel and Conference Center July 18-21.

Register online at https://www.naja.com/conference/registration/.

The Native American Journalists Association serves and

empowers Native journalists through programs and actions designed to enrich journalism and promote Native cultures.

NPM represents the fast growing radio network, stretch-ing from Alaska to New York State. Currently serving 53 tribal communities, NPM provides broadcast training, radio compliance service, and digital journalism and storytelling courses to Native media makers.

NPM also advocates on behalf of Indian Country on communications and telecommunications issues. NAJA promotes the highest standards of professionalism, ethics and responsibility in reporting, through both educating and unifying journalists committed to increasing the represen-tation of American Indian journalist in mainstream media as well as supporting the efforts of journalists working in tribal media.


43 percent of readers now use Facebook to check news, an increase of seven percent from last year.

What does this mean for the world’s primary news outlets? Gilles Raymond, mobile industry veteran and CEO of Mobiles Republic, said in a press release that the research, “confirms [news orgs] must have multiple streams of mobile news distribution in order to reach the mobile audiences and continue to thrive.”

Con’t from page 4: ‘News snacking’Continued from page 6


Register online nowfor the NNA conventionand the ANA awards receptionhttp://goo.gl/xBLGo


8 common mistakes when writing for the web

Here is a checklist covering 8 mis-takes made repeatedly by first-time web writers, which I’ve put together for one of my classes. The idea is sim-ple: if you answer ‘No’ to any of these, carry on to the accompanying guidance that follows underneath.

checklist: are you doing the following?

Getting straight to the most news-worthy, interesting piece of informa-tion in your first par?

Linking to your source whenever you refer to a piece of information/fact?

Linking phrases (e.g. “a report”) NOT putting in full URLs (e.g. “http://univer-sity.ac.uk/report”?

Indenting quotes by using the block-quote option?

Using brief pars – starting a new one for each new point?

Using a literal headline that makes sense in search results and includes key words that people might be look-ing for, NOT general or punny head-lines

Splitting up your article with sub-headings?

Ending your post with a call to action and/or indication of what information is missing or what will happen next?

Solving it: 1. The first parWhen you write the first draft of

an article some people begin with a ‘warming up’ paragraph. Here’s a clas-sic example:

“On Tuesday 14th February 2012, we went to the office of Bob Jones, for a brief discussion with a colleague…”

Ask yourself this: does your first par tell us anything new? Does it grab the reader and promise more? If it does neither then it needs rewriting.

Here are some examples of cutting to the key facts:

“A vice chancellor who sparked a political storm over his views on the social mix of degree students has been

appointed England’s new university access tsar.”

Or, when your focus is an interview or guest post:

“Attempts to block the appointment of the new head of Offa, and changes to the tuition-fee regime, make higher education policy resemble an Alice-in-Wonderland world, says Mike Baker”

Or: “A new London park, 70,000 volunteers, a home crowd spurring on British athletes… Sebastian Coe tells Emma Brockes why the 2012 Olympics are worth the money”

You can even start with the most colourful and attention-grabbing infor-mation gained in the interview, like so:

“If in February 1941 the commander of the German battlecruiser Gneisenau had decided to steam off and leave Pe-ter Coe to his fate in an open lifeboat in the North Atlantic, the world might never have taken delivery of his son, Sebastian.”

In short, if your paragraph is warm-ing up, chop it out entirely – and look at each paragraph to see which one is the best to start with. If your article is trying to cover more than one basic angle, consider splitting it into two separate, shorter, posts.

Don’t tell us how you got here.Another common mistake is to tell us

about how you got to this point:“At first I had this idea, and then X

happened, and I realised Y, so I de-cided to write about what I’m about to write.”

Remember the reader doesn’t care how you got to this point – unless it’s a stunning story in itself. So cut to the chase instead:

“Here’s a list of some of the most informative and expert Twitter users in school sports.”

solving it: 2. and 3. linking to your sources – and linking phrases, not urls.

Any mention of any information that

you haven’t gathered in its raw form yourself should include a link to the source. For example:

“According to the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s official website, they define “non-completion” by…”

Should be linked to the source mate-rial as follows:

“According to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, they de-fine “non-completion” by…”

Note that I’ve also removed “official website” – for two reasons:

Never link to a general homepage – always deep-link to the specific page containing the information or report you’re referring to.

The link tells us it’s according to a webpage, you don’t need to repeat that.

Here are some more examples:“In September 2011 The Telegraph

reported that…”“John Smith told one blog that he…”“While almost half of students don’t

know about the policy...”“Jane Jones said that...”“The head of teaching and learning

at HEFCE is Heather Fry...”“Michael Gove voted in favour of...”The more links your work contains,

the more value it holds for users – it’s just good online journalism.

Solving it: 4. Formatting text: block-quotes, bullet lists, and subheadings

Online text is easier to read the more that it is broken up. Get to know the formatting panel just above the space where you write your post (shown below).

Use the quotation marks button to indent quotes.

Use bullet lists and numbered lists to break up your post when your content suits a list.

Select text and use the link button

BY PAul BrADsHAw | ONLINE JOURNALISM BLOG

Continued on page 10


(the chain icon) to make it into a link.Use the ‘Format’ drop-down to

create subheadings (Heading 2 is best – Heading 1 is used for the headline already).

If you’re pasting text from elsewhere (always put it in quotes!) use the ‘eraser’ icon to strip out formatting such as font, size, colour etc. (Or bet-ter still, paste it into the HTML view so no formatting is retained.)

Solving it: 5. Splitting pars after every point is made

Compare the following:“Firms and charities are to be in-

vited to bid for a payment-by-results scheme to try to get “Neet” teenag-ers into work or training, in a project launched by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The £126m scheme is aimed at 55,000 teenagers in England with poor qualifications who are cur-rently not in education, employment or training. Mr Clegg says it is about “getting them out of the living room, away from the telly and into the world of work”. Labour says it won’t help the majority.”

And this:“Firms and charities are to be in-

vited to bid for a payment-by-results scheme to try to get “Neet” teenag-ers into work or training, in a project launched by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

“The £126m scheme is aimed at 55,000 teenagers in England with poor qualifications who are currently not in education, employment or training.

“Mr. Clegg says it is about “getting them out of the living room, away from the telly and into the world of work”.

“Labour says it won’t help the ma-jority.”

That’s from the BBC, an exemplar of good web writing.

Try to keep pars short, and start new

ones whenever a new point is being made.

solving it: 6. and 7. Headlines and subheadings – keep them specific and literal.

Imagine what your headline looks like in the middle of a bunch of search results, or on Twitter. Imagine what it looks like to someone who has never read your site before, doesn’t know you, or your culture, jokes and phrases.

Here’s an example of a bad headline:Useful contacts for everyoneAgain, imagine this in search engine

results. Twitter contacts in what field? They’re clearly not for “everyone” but something specific – in this case, the Olympics, so this is much better:

20 essential Olympics Twitter con-tacts

Here’s one that’s even worse:An UpdateThis tells us nothing unless we are

already following the blog – and even then, it doesn’t tell us whether this is interesting or merely functional. Try this instead:

Update: unemployment up; Gray-ling’s 3 reasons; we want your ques-tions!

Don’t be afraid of long headlines – look at how the Daily Mail use them (extremely successfully) on their website.

Try and use key words and phrases in your headline so that search en-gines understand what they’re about. This, for example, is bad:

Match reportThis is much better:Rooney scores 4 in Roma Champions

League clash…Because what will people be

searching for? Rooney perhaps; Cham-pions League; Roma. They might even be searching for “hat-trick” or “video”. Think of how people search, and write your headline to answer that (assum-ing your content does too).

Subheadings: The same rules apply to subheadings. These serve two pur-poses: to break up your text so people can find their place in them more eas-ily; and to help search engines under-stand your content.

They should therefore be mini-head-lines, with keywords relevant to the pars that follow.

Solving it: 8. Ending your post – online is interactive

One of the key ways in which online journalism differs from print or broad-cast is that you are not dealing with an audience: you are dealing with poten-tial collaborators and sources who can improve your journalism with a single comment.

The traditional way of ending ar-ticles, then – implying that the story is finished and the reader can move on to what’s on page 5 – does not apply.

Instead you should try to leave room for the user to contribute in some way. Here are some examples:

“This is the latest in a series of inter-views with Olympic sponsors. You can read the rest here, and follow future updates on our Facebook page, Twitter account, and mailing list.”

“Next week we’ll be interviewing Graham Gordon on his role in the pro-cess. If you have any questions you’d like us to ask, please post a comment, or email us at…”

“Have we missed anything? Please let us know in the comments”

“What we still don’t know is how much of this money reached the clubs. If you can help us find out, get in touch at…”

“We’ll be discussing this at our next meetup at … – sign up to attend on our Meetup page.”

“We’re looking for people to contrib-ute to the blog on this issue. If you’re interested, get in touch at…”

Con’t from page 9: Writing for the webContinued from page 9

Kevin SlimpThe News Guru

[email protected]

When I was a college student living in Texas, I got used to hearing people say, “Boy, howdy.”

� is wasn’t a greeting, as you might think. It was more along the lines of “You’re not kidding!”

It’s struck me as funny that, as I thought about the best way to explain the reaction to Adobe’s Creative Cloud announcement, the � rst words that came to mind were, “Boy, howdy.”

Did Adobe open a huge can of worms by moving to the Creative Cloud model? Boy, howdy. Did they ever. Is the creative and publishing world up in arms about it? Boy, howdy. Are they ever.

Is there anything we can do about Creative Cloud? Probably not.

For those who have been hiking the Appalachian Trail for the past two months and aren’t familiar with the changes at Adobe, here’s the short version: You no longer buy Adobe so� -ware. You lease it. � ink of your cable company. For a monthly fee, you have access to hundreds of channels, even though you probably don’t watch more than three or four.

Cable seemed like a good idea when I moved into my place three years ago. I got 200 channels, HBO, high-speed Internet and a phone line for $99 per month. It’s hard to argue with that. What I haven’t been able to � gure out is how my cable bill went from $99 per month to over $200 without my noticing it. And I don’t even get HBO anymore.

And that’s the catch about Creative Cloud, isn’t it? Sure, we get InDesign, Photo-shop, Illustrator, Flash, Acrobat InCopy and a couple of dozen other apps. But let’s face it, how many of our people use more than two or three Adobe applications?

And that price of $30 per month per user? � at sounds like an OK deal. $360 per year for the latest version of Adobe so� ware. But what about next year. � at price is only guaranteed for the length of the one-year agreement. And, unless something changes, the $30 per

month goes up to $50 for folks who sign up a� er July 31, 2013. So beginning August 1, that $360 moves up to $600 annually.

Are people upset? Boy, howdy. � ere are blogs and online communities dedicated to complaining about the changes at Adobe. � ey’ve recently been compared to Quark, whose corporate attitude in the 1990s led to their quick descent from their lo� y perch as king of the creative world.

In 1997, Publish Magazine asked me to write an editorial comparing Adobe to Quark. Not a so� ware comparison, but a comparison of the companies. At the time, it seemed like just about all of Quark’s cus-tomers were tired of their corporate “take it or leave it” attitude.

Quark customers le� in droves a� er the release of Adobe InDesign. Over the next few years, the king of the creative world was sitting at the bottom of the heap, looking up at the new king.

I’ve received calls and emails from pub-lishers from New York to California. I even received a call while I waited for a � ight in Boston last week from a National Newspaper Association board member. He called, dur-ing their meeting, to learn what our alterna-tives are as an industry. Apparently it was the board’s “hot” topic at that moment. My answer, “Not much.”

At this moment, however, I’m letting my

mind play “What if?” � e game is played something like this:

• What if Quark got together with Corel and packaged the latest version of QuarkX-Press with Corel Paintshop Pro and sold the bundle for $699?

• What if Quark bundled QuarkXPress with GIMP, a free Photoshop “clone” ap-plication and made some tweaks so the two applications could work seamlessly together, like InDesign and Photoshop?

� e problem with playing “What if?” is that it’s just a game. It looks like none of these scenarios are going to happen. I just got o� the phone with Gavin Drake, VP of Marketing at Quark, and it sounds like they’re not planning any bundles or making any plans to take on the Creative Cloud.

And let’s face it. If Quark’s not interested in competing with Adobe on the publishing front, who will?

And, for those of you who are wonder-ing, I did talk to Liz Mitchell, PR Manager at Corel. She was very kind and happy to answer my questions concerning Adobe users looking for alternatives. However, in the end, Corel has products that serve as

alternatives for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but their products are primarily Windows-based and there is nothing to compare to InDesign or QuarkXPress.

I’m not worried about the changes with Adobe so� ware. We can always keep producing newspa-pers and other publications the way we always have. What does worry me is that companies like Adobe and Quark don’t see the traditional publishing world as a market worth concern any longer.

And as logical as it seems, creat-ing an alternative to InDesign just isn’t feasible. I was involved in the K-2 project - what later became InDesign - and it seems like it took seven years or more to develop the original version of the application.

So what’s my advice? � ere doesn’t seem to be a viable option to Adobe Creative Cloud at the moment. Eventually you will be

forced to upgrade equipment and so� ware and, when you do, you’ll probably sign up for Creative Cloud.

In the meantime, read carefully. � e price goes up signi� cantly a� er July 31, 2013. If you are going to upgrade so� ware, do it be-fore then. Otherwise, you’ll spend $240 extra per user over the next year.

Am I a little frustrated that we don’t seem to have other options? Boy, howdy, am I ever. But like everyone else, there doesn’t seem to be much I can do about it at this point.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about the changes at Adobe. Email those to me at [email protected].

STORM CLOUDAdobe opens can of worms with Creative Cloud

Umbrella illustration courtesy of Adbuilder.com

Webinar Calendar

Looking for more webinars? Check out the ANA training calendar at:

http://ananews.com/calendar

Savings, Costs and the How-to You Need on Full-Service IMbwHeN: Friday, July 12 | 3 p.m. ESTDescriPTioN: Effective January 2014, newspapers must implement Full-Service Intelligent Mail barcodes (IMb) in order to be eligible for USPS automation rates. Unlike to-day’s Basic IMb, Full-Service covers much more than just the address barcode. This webinar will provide an under-standing of what Full-Service is, how to decide if it’s right for you and how to make the transition from Basic IMb.PreseNTer: Brad Hill, NNA rep, USPS Mailer’s Technical Ad visory CommitteecosT: $35 more iNFo: http://bit.ly/1aDJA2N

Getting Responses from your Print and Digital AdswHeN: Tuesday, July 16 | 2:30 ESTDescriPTioN: This session will focus on getting respons-es from your print and digital ads by answering a few key questions. What the real purpose of a direct-response ad is...and no, it’s not what you think it is! What advertis-ers REALLY want from their ads? You will learn how to choose THE RIGHT ad content to motivate response and to develop the ad’s “irresistible” offer, use headlines and visuals and much more.PreseNTer: Joe DeBiak, CEO and Founder, Center for Advertising EffectivenesscosT: $195 more iNFo: http://bit.ly/13vqfU4

Effective Social Speak - How to Engage and Win with Social ChatterwHeN: Thursday, July 18 | 1 p.m. ESTDescriPTioN: Though social networks and social media have been a part of our professional and personal lives for some time now, many businesses find forming effec-tive conversations, with the right audience, via the right social platform somewhat daunting. In this session, we’ll not only talk about the power of these platforms today

and tomorrow, but we’ll go one step further and demysti-fy the act of effective communication on these platforms, with the intent to increase engagement, followers and brand mind share.PreseNTer: Beverly Crandon, Director, Media Partnerships, Dream Local Digital cosT: $195 more iNFo: http://bit.ly/10I5LU9

Time-Saving Tips for InDesign UserswHeN: Friday, July 19 | 1 p.m. CSTDescriPTioN: Do you find yourself digging through menus and panels to find the commands you need in In-Design? Are you spending time on repetitive setup tasks that could be spent more productively? InDesign has a variety of features that allow you to speed up your work-flow without compromising the quality of your design. Learning to use these features effectively will help you on your way to becoming an InDesign expert.PreseNTer: Sherry Berghefer, Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University.cosT: $35more iNFo: http://bit.ly/17zs1Vp

Native Ads: Targeting the Right Customer at the Right TimewHeN: Tuesday, July 23 | 3 p.m. ESTDescriPTioN: Native ads which attempt to gain atten-tion by providing appropriate content in the context of the Web user’s experience is the latest in hot advertising techniques. It sounds simple but there are various for-mats and platforms for capturing attention and increasing click through. Our in-house advertising expert Amie Stein will explain it all in this 30-minute webinar. PreseNTer: Amie Stein, LMA Training & Development DirectorcosT: $39more iNFo: http://bit.ly/16hVih0

june 2012

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