America’s Newspapers Launches Print Advertising Network
America’s Newspapers has launched a national print advertising network. Newspapers from across the country have united to support America’s Newspapers through their donation of ROP advertising space, according to the organization. More than 720 papers have contributed to the effort, says the group.
“This program creates a great opportunity for advertisers to reach a premium audience at an attractive CPM rate,” said a press release on the effort. Florida-based Intersect Media has been chosen as the agency to manage the program, but any member of America’s Newspapers with a national sales force can sell the two quarter-page ads, “helping to support America’s Newspapers and earning a nice commission as well,” says the release. For advertisers, this is an opportunity to reach more than 6 million readers, says the release. America’s Newspapers and its partners will place the ads across the entire network.
Hartford Council Slams Alden Global Capital
The Hartford City Council (Connecticut) has thumbed up a resolution pushing Alden Global Capital, the parent of the Hartford Courant, to refrain from more layoffs, which have “decimated” the staff, and to have the paper go back to local ownership, the paper reported. https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-connecticut-alden-courant-tribune-20200915-luqzmks6wrgyfkws234leaax6e-story.html.
The strongly worded resolution, according to the paper, was proposed by councilwoman Marilyn E. Rossetti. State Sen. Saud Anwar called into the meeting that dealt with the resolution and said that the Courant is the longest continuously published paper in the U.S. and “a gold standard for what can be trusted.” Mayor Ben Florsheim of Middletown also called into the meeting. He said Alden Global Capital “sounds like a villainous company from a Disney movie.”
Layoffs at Meredith, Bloomberg Industry Group
Meredith Corporation cut 180 workers last week, the Des Moines Register reported. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2020/09/18/meredith-corporation-cuts-180-jobs-minimal-impact-des-moines/5824016002/ The layoffs hit 130 staff members from its local media group, owner of 17 television stations, the paper said. The other layoffs are at Des Moines-based Meredith’s national media group, which publishes People, Better Homes & Gardens and other titles. Bloomberg Industry Group, meanwhile, publisher of Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax and Bloomberg Government, informed employees that it’s cutting 21, Talking Biz News reported. The layoffs mostly involve the business side, said Talking Biz News. https://talkingbiznews.com/they-talk-biz-news/bloomberg-industry-group-to-lay-off-21-employees/#:~:text=Bloomberg%20Industry%20Group%2C%20which%20publishes,two%20layoffs%20are%20clerical%20positions.
Nonprofit Mountain State Spotlight Launches
A new nonprofit news source, Mountain State Spotlight, has launched in West Virginia and is seeking donations. The effort is backed by Report for America, ProPublica and the American Journalism Project. https://mountainstatespotlight.org/welcome/ Currently it’s operating with partner GroundTruth (Report for America) as a fiscal sponsor. Mountain State Spotlight says it will become an independent 501(c)(3) group. Mountain State Spotlight says its mission is inspired by the journalism philosophy of late Charleston Gazette Publisher W.E. “Ned” Chilton III: “To help West Virginians improve their state by producing ‘sustained outrage’ journalism that exposes abuses of power by government, business and other institutions.”
Koenig & Bauer’s Heinz Schmid, 1944–2020
News & Tech has gotten word that Heinz Schmid has died. He was known and admired by many in the industry. Schmid, who died in June, served as vice president of web offset sales for Koenig & Bauer’s newspaper and commercial web market and later was in an advisory role for the company. He was born in 1944, in Wurzburg, Germany. In 1959, Schmid began a lifelong career with Koenig & Bauer, the Germany-based printing press manufacturer. He moved to Chicago in 1971 with his wife, Hannelore Dettenbach, and daughter, Alexandra, as he continued his career with KBA North America. In 1980 he joined their sales department in Atlanta and traveled extensively throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Along the road of life, Heinz met many diverse and influential people and made lifelong friends with Americans and Europeans alike.
Post, Financial Times Offer Joint Subscription
The Washington Post and Financial Times are offering a new joint digital subscription. From now through October 8, readers who buy a Washington Post subscription will get three months of the Financial Times included, and readers who buy a Financial Times subscription will get 90 days of digital access to The Washington Post, the Post announced. https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2020/09/14/washington-post-financial-times-announce-joint-digital-offer-new-subscribers/
Telegraph Media Group Goes with Twipe
Telegraph Media Group has chosen Twipe as the partner to work on their recently relaunched daily edition app, says Belgium-based Twipe. The digital edition app is the full, daily edition of The Telegraph newspaper, delivered to subscriber devices. Through collaboration with Twipe, a refreshed version of the daily digital edition was successfully launched earlier this year. The digital edition is now created daily by The Telegraph’s team via Twipe’s NextGen Edition Creation Technology and distributed via Twipe’s Edition Distribution platform to mobile apps on iOS, Android and Kindle.
News Corp to Shift Printing
News Corp plans to shift the printing of several of its publications in New York to a different facility in the city. Under the change, the publications would be printed at The New York Times’ College Point plant in Queens. This plan would result in the closure of the company’s Bronx Print Plant, where the publications are currently printed. Financial details of the arrangement were not released. The company is negotiating with unions representing workers at the Bronx plant. The move may mean up to 400 layoffs, according to the New York Post. The change may not happen until early next year, says the Post. The Bronx plant produces daily print copies of the Journal and The Post, along with Barron’s weekly. All three are also printed in a number of other locations around the country. The Journal and The New York Times are currently printed together at plants in Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, Colorado, Utah and California. News Corp will be examining options for the future of the plant. The decision is part of News Corp’s ongoing process of simplifying the structure of the company, which sold its News America Marketing and Unruly businesses within the past year.
Quantum Design, Hunkeler Partner
Quantum Design, a manufacturer of automatic splicers and turret rewinders and owner of the KTI product line, announced an agreement with Hunkeler, provider of digital print finishing solutions based in Wikon, Switzerland. The agreement will make Quantum Design the exclusive supplier of automatic splicing and rewinding equipment for Hunkeler.
The partnership is a result of many months of work collaborating on a custom automatic splicing machine, the Hunkeler RS8 model, and an automatic turret rewinder, the Hunkeler TR8 model. These new models are already being sold by Hunkeler as part of a complete inline finishing system for the digital printing industry.
“The technology that is central to this collaboration is a game changer for digital printing as Hunkeler will be offering the first inline finishing system with nonstop end to end processing in the industry,” said a press release from Hunkeler. Hunkeler displayed the full solution at their in-house event, Innovationdays 2019, and had plans to showcase the equipment at drupa 2020 prior to the postponement of the event.
SCS Introduces Community Publishing System
SCS has released Community Publishing System (CPS), a content workflow solution. CPS upgrades are underway for SCS’s current editorial customers. The Bee Group Newspapers, in western New York, is currently going live with the CPS suite. Once completed, all nine of their weekly community papers will be produced using CPS. SCS offers a line of publishing-related applications, including Layout-8000. Pennsylvania-based SCS is privately held by Richard and Martha Cichelli.
More news
• Tribune Publishing is shuttering the Daily Press office in Newport News (Virginia), the paper reported. Par Ridder, general manager of the Daily Press and other Tribune papers, said office will close permanently by the end of this month. Most Daily Press staff members have been working from home for months due to coronavirus, the paper said. https://www.dailypress.com/business/dp-nw-daily-press-newsroom-closing-20200915-3ssgwfkobbawpbas4aqu6amrtu-story.html
• The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg and The News & Advance in Lynchburg (Virginia) have laid off workers, Virginia Business reported. Two editors, a designer and two circulation clerks have were cut at The News & Advance. The Free Lance-Star’s digital editor said that he was laid off as well. Last week Virginia Business reported that at minimum five newsroom employees at the Richmond Times-Dispatch were being laid off. Sister papers Greensboro News & Record and Winston-Salem Journal (North Carolina) also saw at least five layoffs, Triad Business Journal reported. Lee Newspapers owns the papers.
https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/jobs-eliminated-at-free-lance-star-news-advance-2/
https://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2020/09/16/news-record-journal-cut-newsroom-jobs.html
• The Detroit Jewish News is becoming a nonprofit news organization, the paper announced. The paper is being hit hard by the effects of the coronavirus, it said. https://thejewishnews.com/
• The Desert Sun (Palm Springs) produced its final locally printed edition Sept. 21. The paper is moving its printing to Phoenix. Gannett owns the paper. https://www.desertsun.com/in-depth/money/business/2020/09/19/gannetts-palm-springs-newspaper-says-goodbye-local-printing-operations/5799939002/
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