Tuesday, September 22, 2009
NINA Fall Conference Announced
The Northern Illinois Newpaper Association's upcoming Fall Conference and Awards Banquet features a change in date and format from previous years.
Rather than an all-day Friday event, this year’s event will be a dinner Wednesday, Oct. 21, featuring a keynote speaker, followed by the annual awards presentation.
Given the economic condition of most newsrooms, the NINA board decided that an all-day event was not practical for most member newspapers this year.
"As newspaper editors, NINA board members are as aware as anyone of the struggles our industry is facing. Staffing, time and money are all in short supply these days,” said Pete Nenni, NINA president. “The change in the day and format for our annual Fall Conference is in recognition of those constraints. We hope it provides the flexibility needed to allow many people to attend this worthwhile event.”
The evening’s keynote speaker had not been finalized at press time, but will be announced soon on NINA’s Web site and Digital Ink blog (www.ninaonline.org).
The entire event will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at Ellington’s dining room in the Holmes Student Center at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
The contest saw a slight increase in entries overall this year, despite the economic hardships in the business. In a cost-saving measure, winners will be given certificates rather than plaques, said Dirk Johnson, NINA executive secretary.
“The real value of a NINA award is an enhanced resume, not the hardware,” Johnson said.
That also allows NINA to reduce its Fall Conference registration cost from previous years. This year, it’s $45 for the first attendee from a member newspaper and $20 for each additional attendee. Individual members can attend for $20.
Registration deadline is Wednesday, Oct. 14.
Printable Registration form
Fall newsletter
Rather than an all-day Friday event, this year’s event will be a dinner Wednesday, Oct. 21, featuring a keynote speaker, followed by the annual awards presentation.
Given the economic condition of most newsrooms, the NINA board decided that an all-day event was not practical for most member newspapers this year.
"As newspaper editors, NINA board members are as aware as anyone of the struggles our industry is facing. Staffing, time and money are all in short supply these days,” said Pete Nenni, NINA president. “The change in the day and format for our annual Fall Conference is in recognition of those constraints. We hope it provides the flexibility needed to allow many people to attend this worthwhile event.”
The evening’s keynote speaker had not been finalized at press time, but will be announced soon on NINA’s Web site and Digital Ink blog (www.ninaonline.org).
The entire event will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at Ellington’s dining room in the Holmes Student Center at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
The contest saw a slight increase in entries overall this year, despite the economic hardships in the business. In a cost-saving measure, winners will be given certificates rather than plaques, said Dirk Johnson, NINA executive secretary.
“The real value of a NINA award is an enhanced resume, not the hardware,” Johnson said.
That also allows NINA to reduce its Fall Conference registration cost from previous years. This year, it’s $45 for the first attendee from a member newspaper and $20 for each additional attendee. Individual members can attend for $20.
Registration deadline is Wednesday, Oct. 14.
Printable Registration form
Fall newsletter
Friday, September 18, 2009
It was 40 years ago ... yesterday
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the first publication of the "Paul is dead" rumor. Beatle fans picked up on "clues" in songs and on album jackets. Here's a long, academic look at the rumor and how it started. The student newspaper at Drake University is the earliest known source, followed by an unsourced story in the Northern Star at NIU. From there, it spread quickly ... even without the Internet.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
NIU event Sept. 25
A letter from Dr. Lois Self, former NINA executive secretary:
Dear NINA friends,
As a former executive secretary and real fan of NINA, I am writing to ask for your help in publicizing the yearlong celebration of the NIU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Golden Anniversary. Of course, classes in humanities, social sciences, and sciences have been part of education at NIU throughout the school’s entire 115-year history. However, reorganization of the Division of Instruction of the old Teachers College in 1959 formally created the college and launched the rapid growth toward the comprehensive university Northern has become.
We will kick-off this anniversary year on Sept. 25 with a gala reception and dinner on campus honoring 50 Golden Anniversary Alumni Award winners, 10 from each of the college’s five decades. These alumni were nominated and selected from among the college’s more than 70,000 graduates. Their stories are indeed diverse and compelling. We are very pleased that over 90 percent of these distinguished honorees will be returning to campus from around the country, and some even from abroad, for this event. We have already received numerous letters of congratulations for the honorees and the college from prominent political figures. Your paper will be receiving a press release about this next week and information about anniversary events and celebrations through-out the year will be available on the Web at http://www.niu.edu/clas50/ and, of course, through the university’s Office of Public Affairs at publicaffairs@niu.edu.
Dr. Donald R. Grubb founded the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association at Northern Illinois University on Dec. 1, 1962. According to archival materials recently provided by his widow, Ruby Grubb, Dr. Grubb began working to form such an organization when he arrived on campus in 1959 to develop and serve as the first chair of the Department of Journalism. The NIU Journalism program boasts many outstanding alumni and continues to collaborate with NINA to support journalism education, professional development and recognition activities. Given our shared history and service region, it would seem particularly fitting for your paper to take note of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 50th anniversary. We would very much appreciate a story, or an editorial congratulating the college on this milestone and listing our honorees, features on the alumni honorees, and/or news stories about the college. I believe such items would be of interest to the many NIU alumni and friends among your readers.
Best wishes,
Lois
Lois Self
Co-Chair,
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 50th Anniversary Planning Committee
NIU Press Release about 50th Anniversary Web site
Dear NINA friends,
As a former executive secretary and real fan of NINA, I am writing to ask for your help in publicizing the yearlong celebration of the NIU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Golden Anniversary. Of course, classes in humanities, social sciences, and sciences have been part of education at NIU throughout the school’s entire 115-year history. However, reorganization of the Division of Instruction of the old Teachers College in 1959 formally created the college and launched the rapid growth toward the comprehensive university Northern has become.
We will kick-off this anniversary year on Sept. 25 with a gala reception and dinner on campus honoring 50 Golden Anniversary Alumni Award winners, 10 from each of the college’s five decades. These alumni were nominated and selected from among the college’s more than 70,000 graduates. Their stories are indeed diverse and compelling. We are very pleased that over 90 percent of these distinguished honorees will be returning to campus from around the country, and some even from abroad, for this event. We have already received numerous letters of congratulations for the honorees and the college from prominent political figures. Your paper will be receiving a press release about this next week and information about anniversary events and celebrations through-out the year will be available on the Web at http://www.niu.edu/clas50/ and, of course, through the university’s Office of Public Affairs at publicaffairs@niu.edu.
Dr. Donald R. Grubb founded the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association at Northern Illinois University on Dec. 1, 1962. According to archival materials recently provided by his widow, Ruby Grubb, Dr. Grubb began working to form such an organization when he arrived on campus in 1959 to develop and serve as the first chair of the Department of Journalism. The NIU Journalism program boasts many outstanding alumni and continues to collaborate with NINA to support journalism education, professional development and recognition activities. Given our shared history and service region, it would seem particularly fitting for your paper to take note of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 50th anniversary. We would very much appreciate a story, or an editorial congratulating the college on this milestone and listing our honorees, features on the alumni honorees, and/or news stories about the college. I believe such items would be of interest to the many NIU alumni and friends among your readers.
Best wishes,
Lois
Lois Self
Co-Chair,
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 50th Anniversary Planning Committee
NIU Press Release about 50th Anniversary Web site
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Maybe newspapers aren't dying
Got a nice note this week from one of my May 2009 grads, and thought it was worth sharing (with his permission). He got a reporting job at the Charles City Press, a daily paper in northern Iowa. This was not the most attractive move for a guy who'd lived his whole life in suburban Chicago. But, he writes ...
This is the message we need to keep telling people: that what they're hearing and reading about the newspaper biz doesn't apply everywhere. Newspapers remain the lifeblood of many, many communities. I think we sometimes forget that.
"I'm happy with my decision. I'm not getting paid a whole lot of money-though that's to be expected-but I get benefits and it's stable. I don't really think the newspaper business is as bad as people think. While the big metros are struggling, thus hurting the business, there are still hundreds of towns that rely on newspapers for, well, news. Towns like Charles City don't have TV stations or bloggers who steal from the newspapers or Huffington Posts that care about what's going on here. (The Press doesn't even put all of its content online to keep people subscribing to the print product.)
"If students want to work for a newspapers, I still think they can find ones to work at. They might not be the New York Times, but anything is a start. Besides, I'm also getting experience designing pages, taking photos and putting content at the Web site, things I might not be able to do at a bigger paper. Over the summer, I applied for magazines and Web sites (there weren't many opportunities at either) but didn't get so much as an interview. I've also written a blog and contributed to a sports Web site, but I didn't make a dime doing either.
"Working for a newspaper is still an attainable job for those students with a passion for it. And having that passion is a necessity because you aren't going to get paid a ton of money, at least not right away. But you'll be able to do what you enjoy for a living, and I think that's why most people get into journalism in the first place."
This is the message we need to keep telling people: that what they're hearing and reading about the newspaper biz doesn't apply everywhere. Newspapers remain the lifeblood of many, many communities. I think we sometimes forget that.
"The Rush to be Wrong"
A really good opinion piece today, The Rush to be Wrong, about CNN and the Coast Guard exercise. It's by former CNN reporter Jamie McIntyre. Key line:
Some senior editor should have stood up and shouted, “Wait! We’re not reporting this until we nail it down.” But if any such protestation was made, it fell on deaf ears of the anxious show producers who, unfortunately, sometimes lack the wisdom and experience to make sophisticated judgments. When it comes to “TV news,” they often know more about “TV” than “news.”
Monday, September 14, 2009
Why accurate trumps first
CNN scared the nation Friday morning by mistaking a Coast Guard training exercise for a potential terrorist attack. The problem: CNN didn’t verify anything before putting it on the air. This from Al’s Morning Meeting on the Poynter Institute site:
Reputable news organizations reporting bad information appears to be a growing problem in the American news media. Some newsrooms are cutting corners by not
verifying information. Others are recycling incorrect information by simply reposting the work of others on their Web sites. Although cable news programs face a certain pressure to be first and fill a lot of time with breaking news, all newsrooms can stumble in the race to be first. The skill of verifying facts is more important than ever. And it may be the only thing that elevates journalism above the rest of the noise on the Internet.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Ethics Challenge
Here’s the first in an occasional series of what-would-you-do questions regarding journalistic ethics.
The local police want the paper to participate in a sting operation. Crooks have been reading the obits in the paper, noting funeral times, then robbing the bereaved families’ houses during the funerals. The police want to run a fake obit in the paper, and then wait inside the house at the address listed. When the crooks enter, the cops will arrest them. They promise that a reporter and photographer can wait inside the house with officers.
You’re the editor. Do you agree to this? Why or why not? If yes, do you place any conditions on this deal?
The local police want the paper to participate in a sting operation. Crooks have been reading the obits in the paper, noting funeral times, then robbing the bereaved families’ houses during the funerals. The police want to run a fake obit in the paper, and then wait inside the house at the address listed. When the crooks enter, the cops will arrest them. They promise that a reporter and photographer can wait inside the house with officers.
You’re the editor. Do you agree to this? Why or why not? If yes, do you place any conditions on this deal?
Save the Date
New format for the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association's Fall Conference this year: It's an evening program, with dinner, keynoter and awards ceremony. Wednesday, Oct. 21, 6 to 9 p.m. in NIU's Holmes Student Center. More info soon.
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