Craigslist founder funds study showing that newspapers are most trusted news source

Isn't it ironic: Craigslist founder Craig Newmark funded a study to determine the news sources Americans trust most and newspapers ranked number one. Craigslist - more than any other single site on the Internet - has upturned the financial fortunes of newspapers in the digital age through its cannibalization of local classifieds ... putting at peril the future of these trusted news sources.

See a synopsis of the report at Poynter Institute of Media Studies' Web site.

CNN interviews GateHouse regional editor on Harrisburg tornado

GateHouse Southern Illinois regional editor Terry Geese's interview on CNN today about the tornado in Harrisburg was mentioned in some quarters on the Internet including this post.

Complete local coverage here.

GateHouse Southern Illinois tornado coverage this weekend

Look for 8-page special Southern Illinois tornado coverage special sections both Thursday and Friday on newsstands in the Daily Register (Harrisburg), Daily Republican (Marion), Daily American (West Frankfort), Benton Evening News and El Dorado Daily Journal.

And check often for regular updates at dailyregister.com throughout the next week.

GateHouse Southern Illinois seeks digital sales leader

GateHouse Southern Illinois is conducting a search for a digital sales leader to drive sales strategy and execution for its numerous daily, weekly and shopper sites. If you know someone who has sales, digital and leadership skills and is interested in working in the greater Marion-Carbondale-Harrisburg area, please direct them to http://tinyurl.com/7xmr28w

When ambiguity is high, adaptability is required: Lessons for those of us in media

An article in the February 2012 issue of Fast Company magazine by Robert Safian on "Generation Flux" offers a lot of terrific insight into business life today in almost every industry. "Generation flux" doesn't attempt to define a demographic group such as Generation X, but rather a "psychographic" one: "What defines GenFlux is a mind-set that embraces instability, that tolerates - even enjoys - recalibrating careers, business models, and assumptions."

While the article focuses on the implications of GenFlux on careers ... my take-aways for those of us in the newspaper industry go beyond our own career paths. Thought leaders in media aren't going to learn anything new from the list by the way ... yet every day it is clear that too few have truly understood / embraced these lessons:

• Chaotic disruption is rampant. Technology is revolutionizing every industry. "You're going to have businesses rise and fall faster than ever."
• Newspaper companies "are not built for flux". Change in a legacy institution such as newspapers is "rough".
• Career newspaper professionals - journalists, salespeople, circulation leaders, etc. - by-and-large are not adept at the most important skill required of this era ... "the ability to acquire new skills". This is compounded by the fact that many newspaper companies have simply cut back on training at a time when it is needed more than ever.
• Those kept awake at night by the disruption and need to change are never going to feel like we are moving fast enough.
• "We need to systematize change."
• "There is a need to be less hierarchal and to rely more on teams." If we don't change the structure of how we take our products to market, we get "less relevant" by the day.
• It is important to be "clear about your business mission". Without clear focus managing the disruption could result in unintended consequences - ie. venturing too far outside core competencies, resulting in failure.
• On an individual level, we can't change how old we are or how much "tenure" we have in a legacy institution, but among the things we can and must change is our "technological age". That requires a lot of off-the-clock dedication and hard work.

And on a personal level - addressing the article's focus on careers - I felt a little less of any old-timer when I read the comments of one 34-year-old woman in the information technology field: "I'm skill hoarding ... You keep throwing things into your backpack, and eventually you'll have everything in your tool kit." This isn't new wisdom; this is counsel that author / consultant Tom Peters has been spouting for decades (and one I have tried to follow). As one interviewee in the GenFlux article illuminates: A "flexibility of skills leads to flexibility of options."

And yet, the more things change around us, the more one might feel they haven't hoarded enough skills. So back to my comment about disruption keeping some of us up at night.

Read the full article.

Doris Wilson is GateHouse Southern Illinois new group advertising manager

Announcement late this week: Doris Wilson was named Group Advertising Manager, GateHouse Media Southern Illinois. Doris will lead our sales teams in following offices: Harrisburg, Galatia, Benton, West Frankfort, DuQuoin, Marion and Carmi.

She has served as advertising manager at the Daily Register in Harrisburg for 12 years. Prior to that, she worked at the Du Quoin Evening Call.

Congrats Doris!

This is the latest in a a series of promotions. Several other leadership changes in GateHouse Southern Illinois announced last month prior to my launch of this blog:

- George Wilson will supervise operations at The (Harrisburg) Daily Register, Eldorado Daily Journal, The Carmi Times, The Weekly Times, White County Shopper News, The Gallatin Democrat, Ridgway News and the Money Stretcher.

- Ray McGrew is group publisher of the Olney Daily Mail, CCAP Special, Jasper County News Eagle, Newton Press Mentor, Teutopolis Press and the Richland County Shopper.

- Tom Tiernan is group publisher of the Murphysboro American, Steeleville Ledger and Randolph County Herald News. Sabrina Franklin remains general manager of the Steeleville and Randolph County newspapers.

- Terry Geese, former managing editor in Harrisburg and Eldorado, has been promoted to senior editor of the Southern Illinois group.

- Robert Wall, former publisher of the Daily Republican in Marion, has been promoted to regional advertising director for the southern Illinois group.

GateHouse Media, Inc., headquartered in Fairport, N.Y., is one of the largest publishers of locally based media in the United States, as measured by its 97 daily publications. It currently serves local audiences of more than 10 million per week across 21 states through hundreds of community publications and websites. GateHouse Media is traded in the over-the-counter market under the symbol "GHSE."

There are eight daily newspapers and 20 weekly and shopper publications in the southern Illinois division of GateHouse, as well as affiliated websites and several niche publications.

Memorial Day roots in upstate New York and Illinois

When I attended the 2012 West Frankfort Chamber of Commerce dinner recently, a speaker mentioned John Logan College's namesake, a Civil War general and Illinois Congressman and Senator, was "founder of Memorial Day". This contradicts legend in the Finger Lakes' region of upstate New York, where village signs welcome travelers to Waterloo to "the birthplace of Memorial Day".

So I researched the subject online and found several variations of the same story: Waterloo held a Memorial Day celebration on May 5, 1866 with flags draped at half mast, and General Logan issued an executive order declaring "Decoration Day" exactly two years to the day later; the celebration that year was May 30.

Waterloo - located in a market I used to work as a director of advertising & market development (Auburn, N.Y.'s The Citizen) - is home to a Memorial Day Museum. It was officially recognized as the birthplace of the federal holiday in 1966.

A post on a Memorial Day Web site addresses the who-was-first controversy: "While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen. Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868."

Off-the-cuff career advice for the college journalism major

My son Trevor recently asked me for career advice to pass along to a friend who is a journalism major at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA). She was wondering "how she gets recognized in the newspaper biz".

So here it is ....

There is a quotation by Thomas Jefferson that is often cited by people such as me who pretend to be career strategists for others, but it is sage advice worth repeating: "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

I found that to be true in both my career and in the careers of others inside and outside of journalism. What Trevor's friend needs to do between now and graduation - and beyond - is to work diligently to cast as wide a net of meaningful contacts and relevant professional experiences as possible. It just may put her in position to enjoy some luck in landing a gig in a very competitive job environment. If I were a college journalism student with a year or two or more of school left, here would be my strategy:

• First and foremost, I would decide what my "personal brand" was going to be. What is the "elevator pitch" that is going to separate me from all of the other journalism candidates out there? (Tom Peters does a great job of coaching on this topic; see Fast Company for a sample of his philosophy.) While having the ability to be a generalist serves some people very well, there are a lot of niches within journalism and if you can, say, combine some expertise in medicine or business with your storytelling skills, you may rise to the top of the resume pile for news organizations with very specific needs.

• Next, I would create a strategy for broadcasting my personal brand across as many social platforms as possible - especially LinkedIn, Twitter and a blog. I would make sure that my insights go both deep and broad on professional topics of interest and I would link, link, link to the writings of others.

• I would also start polishing my production skills for organizations looking for someone who can be part journalist, part technician. I would want to be able to demonstrate knowledge of Dreamweaver, Final Cut Pro, InDesign, digital photography and digital videography to ensure I am on solid footing against other job candidates. I would "demonstrate" these skills by putting together an attractive portfolio of compelling journalism using these multi-media tools.

• I would expand my list of mentors outside of academia. This isn't an easy thing for many college students to do. But if I was serious about begin a journalist I would follow up with visiting lectors on their LinkedIn sites and find a reason to connect. I would look for local and state press association meetings and conventions I might attend (usually fees are reduced or waived for students) and then I would work the room, collecting business cards and making good first impressions. I would apply for fellowships to student training by journalism institutions such as the Poynter Institute of Media Studies and do the same there if admitted. I would ask my college's carer office for names of alumni working in the field and might insist they make an introduction.

• I would want to build a body of professional clips by approaching my hometown newspaper or one near the school, i.e. the North Adams Transcript and The Record in Troy are two of many possibilities within 45 minutes of MCLA. Not every newspaper needs or wants student stringers or interns (more on that later) but prod them to converse about coverage areas with which they are struggling. For instance, many papers are under corporate mandates to publish more videos and / or develop more blogs and sometimes smaller newspapers fall short fulfilling the print + digital requirements of each news cycle with fewer resources than they had a few years ago. If you can find a need you may find your foot in the door. Don't be discouraged if the first thing they offer you resembles clerical duties; do them well and more responsibility will come.

• Expand your horizons academically online as well. The Poynter Institute has some wonderful Webinars and self-directed courses at newsu.org - including some specifically designed for college students - as do many other journalism organizations. Again, also look to local and state press clubs for student opportunities such as contests and seminars. These experiences will round out your resume nicely and demonstrate you have an insatiable appetite to learn your vocation.

I mentioned briefly internships. Understand that many news organizations have dropped unpaid internships based on how their corporate legal teams have interpreted state and federal labor laws. And some have also reduce or eliminated paid internships due to financial constraints. In many instances you may have to find ways to work around these obstacles to develop the clips - and professional coaching - you need to land your first job. As I also stated, freelance and unpaid blogs can be relativity easy entrées into many small and mid-size newspapers. (Newspaper attorneys seem o.k. with unpaid blogs as long as you sign legal forms releasing them from liability for anything you might say or want to get paid for later.)

There is much more you can do such as comb professional message boards and ask the question Trevor passed along to me of every journalist you meet. The harder you work, the sooner luck will find you. And with that, I wish you the best of "luck".

Welcome

Welcome to Southern Illinois Community Newspapers in the Digital Age. I wrote a blog for two years while a newspaper group publisher in upstate New York and I enjoyed it so much I decided to repeat the experience in my new role as a regional publisher for GateHouse Media in Southern Illinois.

My goals:

• To share my reflections on the transformation of what was traditionally known as the "newspaper industry" but is so much more in the digital age.
• Introduce new developments at our many publications.
• Signal out our employees for their hard work and unique contributions.
• Demystify the newspaper business. For instance, despite "common knowledge" indicating otherwise ... newspaper audiences are reaching all-time highs across print, Web and mobile platforms. More on this in future blogs.
• And occasionally report on observations of life in our local communities.

Please bookmark this site and to paraphrase Illinois' own Al Capone, return to this blog early and often.