Fall Conference When: Friday, Oct. 28 Where: Campus Life Building, Room 100, Time: Program runs 9 a.m. to 11:45, with awards luncheon to follow in the Holmes Student Center’s Duke Ellington Ballroom. To register: Download a form. Deadline: Friday, Oct. 21 Cost: $60 for a newspaper’s first participant, $30 for each additional participant. Includes program and luncheon. Parking: Registrants may park in the Newman Center lot, just north of the Campus Life Building. Download a pass. |
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FALL CONFERENCE
By Colin O’Donnell
Daily Herald
NINA First Vice PresidentDeKalb -- It’s the dilemma facing all newspapers, big or small. How do we hook the younger generation on newspapers? How do we make sense of all the information available and make it work in our own communities?
The Northern Illinois Newspaper Association recognizes this issue, and our Oct. 28 Fall Convention at Northern Illinois University is the place to come for answers.
DeKalb -- It’s the dilemma facing all newspapers, big or small. How do we hook the younger generation on newspapers? How do we make sense of all the information available and make it work in our own communities?
The Northern Illinois Newspaper Association recognizes this issue, and our Oct. 28 Fall Convention at Northern Illinois University is the place to come for answers.
Two longtime newspaper editors – Mary Nesbitt of the Readership Institute and Rich Somerville of Media Foresight Associates – will discuss how reporters and editors can take the latest in readership research and use it to connect better with younger adult readers tomorrow. In this practical session, they’ll show story and page examples from newspapers across the country; discuss innovations in finding, reporting and presenting news; and share reporting and editing tips to improve the news report in ways that infrequent readers will appreciate.
The workshop will end with group exercises to help participants practice putting knowledge into action.
Nesbitt is managing director of the Readership Institute at the Media Management Center, Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill. The Institute was formed in 1999 by the national publishers’ and editors’ organizations (NAA and ASNE) to help daily newspapers grow readership. It conducts research with practical applications for newspapers in four main areas that drive readership — content, service, brand and internal newspaper culture. It shares the findings through many channels — workshops, seminars, presentations, reports, articles and an extensive Web site, www.readership.org.
Nesbitt has worked with the Center since 1998, first directing the women in newspaper management project and then helping to create the Readership Institute. Her background is in journalism and teaching.
Somerville, a journalist for 40 years, worked for the Readership Institute for three years and then as an editor of a small daily in order to put the RI’s findings into practice. He is now a consultant specializing in readership growth and change management. A major part of his work has been in helping papers to create a positive “reader experience” and to make “outside-in” thinking part of everyday newsroom practice.
Contest draws more than 900 entries
By Lois Self
Executive SecretaryThe NIU Department of Communication looks forward to joining with NINA again in hosting our Fall Conference and announcing the results of our journalism program’s annual newspaper contest.
This year’s contest netted more than 900 individual entries, submitted by 31 different newspapers or newspaper groups. We were especially pleased to receive 32 submissions for the new category on religion reporting, created to honor longtime and recently retired NINA Board member Owen Phelps of Rockford.
Judging of all entries is nearly complete and judges are reporting that the quality of material submitted is making their decisions on awards quite difficult.
The program committee has put together an outstanding morning of presentations. In recent years, more than 100 reporters, photographers, editors and publishers have typically attended the Fall Conference and our awards luncheon. The day is a wonderful opportunity for professional development, networking with friends, and celebrating some of the finest journalism in the region. We hope you and your colleagues are making plans now to head our way Oct. 28.