The Indiana Publisher

The Indiana Publisher Published alternate Thursdays Volume 78, Issue 16 • August 1, 2013 Paxton publisher joins board SERVICE APPEALS TO PRESS ASSOCIATIONS T T he Hoosier State Press Association welcomes Andy Eads to the board of directors. Eads serves as publisher for Paxton Media Group properties the Herald-Press (Huntington) and the Wabash Andy Eads Plain Dealer. He assumes the board seat vacated by Bill Masterson Jr., who recently accepted a position with Berkshire Hathaway's BH Media Group. Eads brings loyal dedication to newspapers and contagious enthusiasm to the board, said Steve Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel. "Andy's experience and energy will benefit member newspapers as the board looks to diversify HSPA's services and revenue streams to keep dues down," Key said. "He was already a regular at the Annual Meeting and other HSPA functions, so his selection for the board was a natural pick." See Publisher, Page 4 AP offers free trial for HSPA weeklies T he Associated Press is joining with the Hoosier State Press Association to offer HSPA weekly newspapers free trials of an AP service. AP News Choice for weeklies and their websites offers costeffective tools to keep weekly papers' print and online editions up to date with news content tailored to the needs of local readers. "HSPA is happy to work with the AP to make this trial available to weeklies as part of our effort to help members access valuable content," said Steve Key, executive director and general counsel for HSPA. AP News Choice provides content including state news; the top national and international stories of the day; and news channels focused on specific news topics including agriculture, See AP, Page 4 Congress moves on postal reform A press release service from California-based GistCloud will allow HSPA to partner with entities to send announcements via email, text, social media and other outlets. HSPA partners with GistCloud T he Hoosier State Press Association Board of Directors voted unanimously Friday to partner with GistCloud LLC to significantly upgrade the association's press release service. HSPA will be the 19th state press association to team up with GistCloud, based in California. The service, soon to be available at Indiana.gistcloud.com, will benefit the association and entities wanting to distribute their message. The partnership also will enable member newspapers to receive information in a variety of mediums and display the information on multiple content platforms. Brian Cafferty, chief executive officer of GistCloud, describes his company's product as an "intermedia press release." Releases can be sent via email, text message, images, audio, video, and social media. Press release service HSPA is one of 19 U.S. press associations to partner with California-based GistCloud to distribute news releases. For more information, contact Key at skey@hspa.com or (317) 624-4427. The service increases a company's visibility to the public and makes journalists' jobs of processing news simpler. HSPA's press release offerings via GistCloud should be up and running within weeks. In addition, the service will be another tool to assist newspapers through HSPA's advertising arm, Midwest Advertising Placements. "The service can be coupled See GistCloud, Page 2 he National Newspaper Association continues to object to calls for the end of six-day mail delivery. The Postal Reform Act of 2013 that recently cleared the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on a vote of 22-17 would: • End Saturday letter delivery • Phase out door-to-door mail delivery service • Remove no-layoff clauses from future union contracts. The NNA foresees a high risk in Congress regarding Saturday letter delivery and is exploring ways to mitigate damage if five-day delivery prevails, said Max Heath, Postal Chairman for the National Newspaper Association. "If no reform package passes both Houses and gets signed by the president, the appropriations bill could continue to rule the day and keep six-day delivery," Heath said. "So much is still up in the air." Among the cost-cutting reforms is a provision that would move many older "doorslot" delivery units toward curbside delivery mailboxes and, where appropriate, neighborhood boxes, said Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sponsor of the legislation. Door-slot delivery costs the Postal Service, on average, $353 per unit per year, while delivery to curbside mailboxes costs $224 per unit per year, according to Issa. The transition could save over $4 billion annually, he said. Despite more than a dozen amendments being offered on the legislation, none had the goal of baring the Postal Service from implementing a five-day letter delivery plan. Content-sharing services increase news reach H SPA's InfoNet program, popular with members since its inception in 2010, is serving as a model content-sharing system. The free service has grown to include coverage of the Indiana Statehouse, photos, and college news, and the system is one the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State is working to emulate. The college, under the direction of Special Projects Director Larry Ganders, is developing a contentsharing system geared toward week lies and small and mid-sized dailies. After a grant-funded study detected gaps in press coverage in rural areas, Washington State set out to fill them through sharing newspaper content, Ganders said. "Community newspapers should have a better way to exchange information among themselves," he said. "And so we set to work doing it." With the support of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, a group of 130 community newspapers, Ganders began researching what other states are doing with content-sharing services. He found HSPA's InfoNet. "I repeatedly heard that Indiana's press association system worked well," Ganders said. What distinguishes HSPA's service is a dedicated web editor who identifies state news from member websites and posts stories to the content-sharing site, rather than relying on members to submit content, he said. "Doing that takes care of problems that I hear in other states," he said. Ganders has no budget for the content-sharing website he's developng, i aside from man-hours the univer ity s con rib tes for him to work on it, and he t u found HSPAinfo.net's relatively small budget par icularly attractive, he said. t See News, Page 2

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