The Orlando Sentinel will be the first Tribune paper to embrace the company’s new customer-centric design, with changes being implemented June 22. All Tribune papers will incorporate some level of redesign by the end of September, according to a memo from Sam Zell and Randy Michaels that has been posted on PoynterOnline. The memo also notes that Tribune papers will “strategically align the size of the paper we produce with what advertisers want. We will be assuming a 50/50 ad-to-editorial ratio base as a floor to right-size our papers. With that benchmark we can significantly scale back the size of the papers we print, and take significant costs out of our operating run rate.” Read more from this memo to Tribune employees.

By Sean Ireland
Special to the SNPA eBulletin

Objectivity – it’s always been the noblest of goals for newspapers.

For decades, college professors and managing editors have been pounding it into the heads of their charges: “Contact everyone involved, tell both sides and leave your personal bias out. Only columnists and editorial writers are allowed to have opinions.”

But market conditions are dictating that newspapers change and evolve. And one way in which they are is by trying to establish more personal connections with their readers through the online blogs of editors and reporters.

Do editors and reporters blog on your newspaper’s Web site? We¹d like to hear from you about why your newspaper made the decision to do it and how it’s going so far. A future edition of the SNPA eBulletin will examine this topic.

Please contact Sean Ireland at (770) 316-0944 or RMIRELAND98@aol.com.

Edward A. “Trip” Casson III, chairman and CEO of Southern Lithoplate, Inc., has announced a CtP partnership agreement with Ogden Newspapers, Inc.

Under the agreement, the Wheeling, W.Va.-based media company will deploy Southern Lithoplate’s CtP Alliance solution of TIGER V(R) violet CtP consumables with ECRM NEWSMatic 250 CtP devices and Presteligence’s NewsXtreme workflow in 12 newspaper production sites across the United States throughout the rest of the year.
The announcement represents the culmination of a company-wide transition from conventional prepress production to an all-digital workflow that Ogden Newspapers launched in July 2005. At that time, a similar pact led to the implementation at 12 production sites of thermal CtP devices utilizing VIPER 830(R) thermal lithoplates.

As part of the new agreement, Southern Lithoplate will direct the system installation and integration at 12 Ogden Newspapers group properties of violet-laser newspaper CtP platesetters manufactured by ECRM Imaging Systems and NewsXtreme workflow management systems from Presteligence, Inc.

A fourth-generation, family-owned company, Ogden Newspapers publishes 40 daily newspapers, several weekly newspapers and shoppers in 12 states from Florida to upstate New York and as far west as Hawaii. Ogden Publications, Inc., an affiliated company based in Topeka, Kan., publishes several rural-lifestyle magazines, including such well-known titles as Grit, Capper’s and Mother Earth News.

WEHCO was surprised to learn that the ads were on the site, which Wal-Mart is providing in partnership with Oodle. According to Wikipedia, “Oodle is currently the largest classifieds aggregator, and aggregates listings from sites like eBay, rent.com, Myspace, as well as local listings from local newspapers and websites. ” 

WEHCO and Wal-Mart representatives discussed Wal-Mart.com’s classified site before the decision was made to request removal of the ads from the site. 

Wal-Mart noted that WEHCO’s ads would be exposed to a larger audience, and it was possible to direct a inquiry back to the newspaper’s Web site. 

WEHCO noted that users could review the content of these ads on the Wal-Mart site without being directed back to the newspaper’s Web site. It also noted that, unlike some classified sites which concentrate on bigger cities, or certain categories of classifieds, the ads on the Wal-Mart.com site are listed for virtually all towns in the U.S., regardless of size, and all categories, from employment, real estate and autos to merchandise for sale. Whereas sites like Career Builder and Craig’s list have concentrated on larger markets, WEHCO is concerned this could be a significant threat to smaller market newspapers and their classified ads.
While WEHCO realizes it must compete for classified ads and audience, the company says it does not see the advantage in helping classified competitors, especially since classified content is a major reason for reading a newspaper or its Web site, and classified revenues are a major source of funding news gathering, reporting and journalism. 

Robert Weber
Veteran magazine publishing executive Robert C. Weber has been named vice president of advertising for the Daily Press of Newport News, Va. The appointment, announced June 9 by Daily Press Publisher Digby A. Solomon, reflects the strategy of the print and Internet publishing company in applying marketing techniques successfully used by other media to grow market share for the Daily Press. It focuses on developing imaginative advertising solutions that return maximum value to its customers. Most recently, Weber was publisher of “Winding Road,” a national online automotive magazine and Web site created through partnerships with Ebay Motors and other entities.  Published by Absolute Multimedia Inc. in Austin, Texas, Winding Road attracted advertising support from BMW, Toyota, Tommy Bahama, Hyundai and other international clients.

The Washington Post Co. has named Hal S. Jones to succeed John B. “Jay” Morse Jr. as chief financial officer. Jones currently is a top executive at Kaplan, the education company owned by The Post Co. He will take over when Morse retires at the end of the year. The Post Co. also promoted Controller Wallace R. Cooney to chief accounting officer, effective immediately.

Sharon Rosenhause, managing editor of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale has announced plans to retire July 31. In a memo posted on the Poynter.org Romenesko site, Editor Earl Maucker said that due to current economic challenges, the position of managing editor will not be filled at the paper. He said, “The senior editors and I will share Sharon’s duties and responsibilities going forward.”

Geezer with too much time on his hands, wants to hang out at Atlanta Motor Speedway with hottie Robin Meade from CNN’s Morning Express With Robin Meade
Here is one of his video entries:

 The C6 Corvette is a phenomenon. Despite a substandard interior, its power, dynamics, and styling have given it international credibility the C5 struggled to achieve and the gold-chain-inspiring C3 and C4 could only dream of. Now it’s talked of as a competitor for Porsche 911, Aston Martin V-8 Vantage, various BMW Ms, and Mercedes AMGs. That 505-horsepower Z06 (the 2007 Z06 is pictured) hasn’t hurt.But just before it’s replaced by the all-new C7, the C6 will get one last shot at automotive immortality: around 700 horsepower and a new name. Word in Detroit is the long-awaited uber-Corvette, codenamed the Blue Devil…

more

Count on MUCH MORE during the bash and press event later this week.
Thanks to Frankie in NC, we have a quick shot of ONE of the new wheels. You may recall, we todl you that NOT all of the 2008 wheels will be a split spoke as it is on the 2007 Pace Car Corvette.   … including the Z06 exhaust on a Regular Corvette?!?!?!

more 

Charity event for Junior Achievement helps group fund educational activities 

View Video

By DOUG WATERS, The Daily News,
Saturday, April 21, 2007 10:38 PM CDT 

 U.S. Bank’s racing team won the 2007 Gold Cup at Saturday’s Mini Corvette Challenge in the Greenwood Mall parking lot.

Roughly 25 corporate teams raced Corvette-style go-carts in several heats to set the fields for Gold, Silver and Bronze Cup races. The 13th-annual race benefited Junior Achievement of Southern Kentucky, according to Heather Rogers, the local JA president.

Darren Woodruff, U.S. Bank’s Scottsville community president, drove the last half of the 20-lap Gold Cup for his team; regional bank president Craig Browning drove the first.

“Once we got the lead, we were able to bring it home,” Woodruff said, beads of sweat covering his face after the race.

Browning and Woodruff have driven together for four years and the pit crew has been together for five, and the team also won the Gold Cup in 2003.

Going into the most competitive of three races, Browning said, drivers expect fierce competition and bumping around the twisty track, which is surrounded by straw bales.

“You don’t ever know what’s going to happen,” he added.

A General Motors team, one of three of its Saturday entries, took second in the Gold Cup; Wachovia Bank’s team finished third in the nine-car race. Sun/Dollar General’s team took first in the Silver Cup and Nyloncraft’s team was first in the Bronze.

Judy Edwards of Bowling Green got to see her son, Eric Edwards, one of Nyloncraft’s drivers, race for the first time Saturday.

“I didn’t realize that the competition was this intense,” she said, noting that she fears her son’s eventual goal of racing at Beech Bend.

Nicki Carver, wife of Dollar General pit crew member Alan Carver, said being a spectator is “nerve wracking,” especially after watching two cars flip on Saturday. One driver was transported to a hospital by ambulance as a precaution; the other got up and finished his race, she said.

“Our suits are really top of the line,” Carver said of the protection gear her husband’s team wears.

Rogers said teams pay $4,500 for the cars, which are ordered from the same company. The cars then belong to the teams, but are impounded a week prior to the race.

“Some set up practice tracks in their company’s parking lot. The key is to have light, small drivers,” she said.

The event likely raised $30,000 Saturday for Junior Achievement programs in the region, which serve about 14,000 students with economic and financial literacy education, Rogers said.