The post Alliance Joins Coalition Brief Defending Group Libel Doctrine appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

“Peekskill Herald Publisher Regina Clarkin was in Washington, D.C. earlier this week to meet with key Senators and Congressional representatives to advocate for bills and ideas to help save local journalism. Clarkin joined local publisher Adam Stone of Examiner Media along with Emily Sachar and Walter Mullin of The Daily Catch in Red Hook, NY as part of a delegation of some 80 newspaper publishers from across the country. The publishers were invited to Washington by the News Media Alliance, a trade association representing 2,000 newspapers whose members include the largest publishing companies, both newspapers and magazines, in the country.”  Read more.

The post Newspaper Publishers Lobby Congress for Passage of Bill to Protect Local Journalism appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Guests: Gregg Fernandes, The Washington Post and Dan Schaub, McClatchy

“Is there another product you can purchase that is literally updated throughout the day, 24/7 that you can read in multiple formats? Probably not.”

– Gregg Fernandes, The Washington Post

Regarding print or digital news consumption: “It’s not ‘or,’ it’s ‘and.’ Our mission is to enhance and improve the communities we serve and to bring to life free speech in each and every local community. And whichever platform that happens on, that’s great. Today’s digital reach is a multiple of 10x any reach we ever had when we just relied on a printed material to go to a home. We’re doing substantially better at taking our journalism to our markets because we’re using the “and” theory.

– Dan Schaub, McClatchy

What is the role of the print product in an age when people are increasingly consuming news digitally? What challenges are newspapers currently facing in satisfying the demand for the print product? What are the operational and/or cost pressures newspapers must contend with? How do newspapers find people to do the multiple hands-on pieces of production and delivery? How is consolidation in the print industry impacting business decision-making? What are the challenges for newspaper delivery, and what does it looks like in the not-too-distant future? How can newspapers’ delivery networks and distribution knowledge be valuable on a macro scale?

These questions and many more are the focus of this episode of News Take. News/Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern talks with The Washington Post’s Vice President for Distribution & Customer Care, Gregg Fernandes and McClatchy’s Vice President of Supply Chain Operations, Dan Schaub, about the role and value of the print newspaper product, as well as how they are innovating and evolving the product to continue to meet changing reader needs and demands. Fernandes and Schaub give their honest takes about resetting consumer expectations of the print product in a 24/7 news cycle, as well as how they have gotten creative with ways to produce and deliver the print newspaper more efficiently and cost-effectively. They also talk about how “the original gig economy” – newspaper delivery – is best positioned to capitalize on the growth of the sector as retailers and others get in on the game.

Listen or download the audio file to listen offline:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the News Take podcast by clicking “Follow” and selecting your preferred podcasting platform, or click on your preferred platform: Spotify, Apple, Google.

Watch with video:

Speaker bios

Gregg Fernandes is the Vice President for Distribution & Customer Care for The Washington Post Company. He has more than 30 years of experience in the newspaper industry and has worked in all capacities of Circulation and Marketing. Gregg is responsible for all aspects of The Washington Post’s relationship with its customers, including consumer marketing, delivery operations and customer service.

Dan Schaub currently serves as The McClatchy Company’s Vice President of Supply Chain Operations. This role was designed to provide the necessary leadership and focus as McClatchy works to serve its print readers and grow McClatchy’s digital subscription base while offering an array of distribution services to homes and retail outlets throughout the McClatchy’s markets.

Watch the next episode: The State of Advertising and Local News 

Watch the previous episode: Committing to Product Thinking in the News Industry: Putting Readers First

View all episodes

Send us your suggestions

Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

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The post News Take Episode 108: Print, Logistics and Delivery in a Transitional Age appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Guests: Aram Zucker-Scharff, The Washington Post

“For the first time, we actually have the potential to create a real shift that benefits our users, our business, and our society, and that’s a win, win, win.” – Aram Zucker-Scharff on the shift to contextual-based targeting

Ad tech, Privacy and Performance, oh my! News publishers working to adapt to a privacy-first digital landscape before the inevitable end of the third-party cookie can easily become overwhelmed and may not even know where to start.

What does the shift towards privacy mean for news publishers and how they approach ad targeting? Is decreased reliance on third-party tracking a good thing for the industry? What are Core Web Vitals and why should news publishers care? How does my news site’s performance tie in to reader trust? What are things publishers can do right now to improve site performance? What is W3C and how can publishers take advantage to get their voices heard?

These questions and more will be discussed on this episode of News Take. News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern had an energizing conversation with Aram Zucker-Scharff, Engineering Lead for Privacy & Security Compliance at The Washington Post, that got in-the-weeds about the kitchen sink of ad tech topics, including site monetization; improving privacy and the user experience; optimizing site performance using Core Web Vitals; and more.

This episode was so full of interesting facts and actionable insights, we didn’t want it to end. The nuggets of wisdom will come faster than you can write them down, so it’s a good thing this conversation was recorded and you can re-watch it to your heart’s content!

Listen now or download the audio file to listen offline:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the News Take podcast by clicking “Follow” and selecting your preferred podcasting platform, or click on your preferred platform: Spotify, Apple, Google.

Watch with video:

Download closed captioning transcript

Speaker bio

Aram Zucker-Scharff is the Engineering Lead for Privacy & Security Compliance at The Washington Post, where he works with publishers to maximize site performance and revenue. He has also worked on The Post’s Ad Tech R&D and Big Data teams. Aram has developed open-source tools for publishers and consulted on content strategy and digital newsroom workflows. He was one of Folio Magazine’s 15 under 30 in the magazine media industry.

Related reading

“Why The Ad Industry Should Care About Core Web Vitals – And The Impact For Publishers Who Ignore The Dreaded ‘Layout Shift’” (AdExchanger) – by Amanda Hicks, director of product for The Washington Post’s Research, Experimentation & Development (RED) team.

Watch the next episode: Leveraging Products to Connect with Your Audience

Watch the previous episode: Local News: Understanding What Readers Want and How to Deliver it to Them

View all episodes

Send us your suggestions

Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

News Take Production Team:

Host and Executive Producer: Rebecca Frank, VP, Research & Insights, News/Media Alliance

Production Support, Editing & Distribution:

Georgi-Ann Clarke, Social Media & Content Manager, News/Media Alliance
Rachel Fox, Manager, Membership & Events, News/Media Alliance
Lindsey Loving, Director, Communications, News/Media Alliance

Audio & Video Engineer: Current Media Group

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