June 2016 Community Journal Newsletter

Why community newspapers are thriving

By William E. (Bill) Garber
Founder

I scan Bo Sacks’s daily email list of publishing stories, though Bo is a magazine guy.

A few weeks ago he linked to Samir Husni’s article Lose the News – Keep the Paper. Samir Husni manages the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi.

Here’s Husni’s point:

“I am a firm believer that today more than ever we need papers; printed papers; we need them to read like weeklies on a daily basis, unless their frequency is already weekly, and then we need to call them by that moniker. I refuse to call them “news” papers because I really believe that the word newspaper is an oxymoron. In today’s world, there is no way that you can have news, actual breaking news, on paper. But does that mean that we have no need for papers anymore? No need for that printed product that comes curated, edited, well-thought-out, designed, and arrives on my doorstep or in my mailbox on a regular basis? We absolutely do need that product and I’ll tell you why.”

And, save for the occasional story that garners attention from more distant electronic media, once a week is perhaps the ideal frequency and paper the ideal medium.

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March 2016 Community Journal Newsletter

December 2015 Community Journal

Brad Hill becomes an Interlink shareholder

Brad Hill (left) and Bill Garber

Interlink founder and owner Bill Garber announced December 1, 2015, that Interlink President Brad Hill has become a stockholder in the company.

Interlink is a privately owned circulation management company serving the newspaper industry. Publishers of more than 1,700 newspapers across the US use Interlink services to grow newspaper subscription penetration and manage subscriber services, including delivery by mail or carrier.

Hill began working with Interlink in 2001 as a technical contractor after leaving his previous position as Network Administrator for a private school system in Tennessee. Recognizing his ability to bridge the gap between technical issues and non-technical people, Interlink offered him a permanent position handling the integration of Interlink Circulation into new customers’ business systems.

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September 2015 Community Journal Newsletter

Tired of swimming upstream? Walk on water!

By William E. (Bill) Garber
Founder

Being a life-long weekly newspaper fan, of course The Week magazine is something of an inspiration to me.

I really admire how Felix Dennis came to create success for a weekly news magazine in the age of the Internet. He didn’t swim upstream, he walked on the digital waters!

The paper was low grade. The stories were last week’s news and borrowed from other publications, no less! The page count was thin even. And there was only the occasional ad.

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June 2015 Community Journal Newsletter

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Newspaper circulation revenue now trumps newspaper advertising revenue worldwide

By William E. (Bill) Garber
Founder

People like to read newspapers and are obviously happy to pay for the privilege!

That is one way of reading the results of annual reporting by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, as reported by Rick Edmonds at Poynter.  http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/347771/worldwide-newspaper-circulation-revenues-pass-advertising-for-the-first-time/

While community newspapers are a special case, they are special in part because their subscribers are loyal in ways regional and metro newspapers dare not let themselves even dream of.

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March 2015 Community Journal Newsletter

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Postmaster General Megan Brennan is presented an NNA glass paperweight as a token of appreciation by Interlink President Brad Hill, who introduced her, on behalf of the National Newspaper Association following her presentation at the NNA We Believe conference. Interlink photo/Bill Garber

Postmaster General says USPS committed to improved tracking

Megan Brennan, who became the U.S. Postal Service’s first female postmaster general this year, told publishers attending NNA’s We Believe conference March 19 in Washington, D.C., that the key to delivery consistency is ‘visibility.’

She said the Postal Service is committed to improve its tracking ability to make sure newspapers in the system ‘have no place to run and no place to hide’ while in the postal network.

Interlink President Brad Hill, an NNA representative on the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC), introduced Brennan at the opening session.

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December 2014 Community Journal Newsletter

Enjoying circulation conference

Interlink customers Bill Knight, center, publisher of the Quitman County Democrat in Mississippi; Adam Prestridge, publisher of the Columbian-Progress in Mississippi; and Columbian-Progress production assistant Susan Amundson visit during a break at the ArkLaMiss Circulation Conference in Vicksburg last month. For additional photos from the conference, click here.  Interlink photo/Helen Sosniecki

What to do when electronic documentation (eDoc) fails

By Brad Hill
President

Abandoning hardcopy postage statements in favor of electronic submission offers several advantages to newspapers, not the least of which is welcomed convenience to both publishers and Post Office employees alike.

But what happens when the ‘e’ in eDoc stops working?

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September 2014 Community Journal Newsletter

Improving editorial pages

Members of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors participate in an editorial critique session at the organization’s summer conference held at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. From left, Interlink customer Sarah Kessinger, editor and publisher of the Marysville Advocate in Kansas; Merle Baranczyk, publisher of the Mountain Mail in Colorado and Immediate Past President of the National Newspaper Association; Steve Bonspiel, editor and publisher of the Eastern Door in Quebec, Canada; Jim Painter, city editor of the Temple Daily Telegram in Texas; and (back to camera) Clyde Willis, retired publisher of the Metropolis Planet in Illinois. The editorial critique session above was facilitated by retired Missouri publisher, now Interlink Senior Sales and Marketing Manager Helen Sosniecki, whose husband, Gary, is the current ISWNE president. Conference hosts were former Interlink customers Guy and Marcia Wood of New Mexico, now retired. The Sosnieckis will host the 2015 conference at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia. Click here for photos from the Colorado conference.

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June 2014 Community Journal Newsletter

Living history

Johnson Publications publisher Lori Pankonin, right, watches a presentation at the print shop in Railroad Town, which is part of the Stuhr Museum’s Living History Community in Grand Island, NE. The tour was a fundraiser for the Nebraska Press Foundation as a kickoff to the Nebraska Press Association’s annual convention in April. For more photos from the Nebraska convention, click here. Interlink photo/Helen Sosniecki

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March 2014 Community Journal Newsletter

NNA members in D.C. for ‘We believe in newspapers’ summit

NNA members from around the country converged on Washington, D.C. on March 13 for the “We Believe in Newspapers” Leadership Conference and Postal Summit. After a group session, members headed to Capitol Hill to visit their representatives and senators to discuss issues important to the community newspaper industry. Postal changes, including the possibility of the United State Postal Service dropping Saturday mail and the possible end of Postal Regulatory Commission oversight of USPS, and the handling of advertising deductions as a business expense were high on the group’s list this year. The day ended with Bob Schieffer, CBS anchor and moderator of Face the Nation, addressing the group at a dinner at the National Press Club. Schieffer, a friend of NNA President Robert Williams, is shown above, center, with Williams, right, and Nebraska Press Association Executive Director Allen Beermann as he arrived at the Press Club prior to the dinner.  For more photos from the ‘We Believe in Newspapers Summit’, click here.  Interlink photo/Helen Sosniecki

Subscriptions: Expanding that revenue source may be easier than you think

By William E. (Bill) Garber
Founder

Time to risk something new?

How about more of the same?

It’s a lot easier than changing!

And, in at least one substantial way, much more promising.

Newspapers have been around for centuries.

Their user interface was perfected before anyone came up with the words, user interface.

So what’s different these days?

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