Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/47202
Page 4 November 10, 2011 Postal act would keep Saturday delivery for now N ational Newspaper Association lobbyists Tonda Rush and Max Heath have been working on Capitol Hill for months to minimize the harm to news- papers from postal reform leg- islation. Finally, it appears a bill may be moving that newspa- pers across the country can support. A bipartisan group of Senate leaders put together the 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2011 (S. 1789) to break a stalemate on postal reform legislation. It covers financial relief, workforce revisions and ser- vice protections for mailers. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, R-Connecticut, is leading the effort. He is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Joining him are postal expert Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sens. Thomas Carper, D-Delaware, and Scott Brown, R-Massachu- setts. According to the NNA, the bill makes significant prog- ress toward setting the Postal Service on course to avoid financial collapse in 2012. Rush, chief executive officer for NNA, said the postal reform bill needs to be passed by the Senate in the next few weeks. The session of Congress is expected to adjourn in about 30 days. Rush and Heath, postal chairman for NNA, ask news- paper publishers to contact their U.S. senators and en - courage them to support the Postal Service Act. Rush said the bill is the only Senate legislation that guarantees six-day mail deliv- ery for two years and may protect it beyond that. "It also directs USPS to cre- ate an unprecedented option for newspapers to use the mailbox on Saturdays for delivery if the Postal Service abandons residential service," Rush said. After two years, the Postal Service would be required to HSPA Hotline These questions came from South Bend Tribune, NUVO (Indianapolis) and The Indianapolis Star: Q A South Bend schools are look- ing for a new superintendent. They're bringing in four finalists for inter- views with the board and also with various commu- nity groups. The Open Door Law lists two sections – essentially IC 5-14-1.5-6.1(b)(5) and (10) – that seem contradictory regarding this matter. What is the difference between a prospective employee and a prospective appointee? What access are we entitled to with regard to these finalists and their interviews? A prospective employee in this case would be a school superin- tendent candidate, someone who would be hired to work for the public agency. A prospective appointee is someone appointed to a group, such as a city council appointing a member of the board of zoning appeals or plan commission. Those individuals aren't employees of the city but are appointments to governing bodies where they represent the public. This means the school board can have an execu- tive session under (b)(5) to receive information about and interview the four can- didates. I'm less clear on what status the candidate meet- ings with community groups would have. The school board isn't interviewing or receiv- ing information in a "get acquainted session with the candidates" for other groups, so if it is a school board event, the members will have to find another code citation to keep the doors closed to the public. If the session is a meeting of the South Bend chamber of commerce and features the four candidates and not a quorum of the school board, then officials could argue it's a chamber event and not subject to the Open Door Law. The chamber could invite or exclude anyone they wish. In conclusion, school board interviews and discus- sion of candidates can be conducted in a closed ses- sion, but any final vote on the candidates would have to be conducted in a public meeting. That doesn't mean board members can't reach a con- clusion about their choice in the executive session, but the final vote must be in a public meeting. Community meeting can- didate opportunities and press access are dependent on circumstances of the arrangement, but the school board will have to provide basis for closing such a meeting if it calls the ses- sion closed. Private organizations are not under the scope of the Open Door Law, so they can control entry to the meeting. But if they invited the school board as a whole to attend, the board has to give notice of the meeting and would have to justify by statute if the members intend to exclude the public. Q A What's the legality of using the words Super Bowl? Is there a difference between using it editorially and using it in an ad or house ad? The Super Bowl is a trademark term that the NFL guards jealously. You can say "Super Bowl" in your news copy, but any advertising or promotional material must not use the words "Super Bowl." The NFL makes tons of money by letting certain companies be the official sponsor of whatever for the Super Bowl. You shouldn't let a bar, for example, advertise its big-screen TVs as the perfect place to watch the "Super Bowl." The NFL would argue that such an ad implies the league endorsed the bar as a location to view its game, so the bar is prof- iting off of the use of "Super Bowl." Instead say it's the perfect place to watch "Sunday's game." For a complete list of NFL trademark do's and don'ts, visit hspa.com/nfl- trademarks. A Q What is the code citation that says a state agency has a certain about of time to respond to a records request? The state Access to Public Records Act, IC 5-14-3-9, sets the time frame for a response to a records request. The law allows 24 hours if the request is made in person and seven days if it's made by mail or fax. Remember that the "response" isn't a deadline for production of the docu- ments for the requester. It is merely an acknowl- edgement of receipt of the request and a reply that the records will be made available, that the request will be denied, or that it has been handed over to an attorney for review. Contact Steve Key, HSPA executive director and gen- eral counsel, with media law questions at skey@ hspa.com or (317) 624- 4427. Fayetteville Observer's Platinum TV ad package exceeded revenue goal in less than a week! Key Points By Steve Key address the negative impact of delivery loss for mail-sensi- tive groups such as communi- ty newspapers. If a newspaper was im - pacted by the loss of Saturday delivery, the Postal Service would have to consider allow- ing newspapers to distribute through mailboxes. The Government Account- ability Office and Postal Regulatory Commission would both review a future request to cut delivery days. The change may not occur unless the Postal Regulatory Commission determines it is necessary for the Postal Service to be profitable by 2015, Rush said. A few other details of the proposed legislation: • If delivery days are changed, there may not be more than two consecutive days without mail delivery. • Before closing or consoli- dating mail processing plants, the Postal Service must pro- vide more notice to the public, receive public input for 45 days, hold a community meet- ing, consider options to reduce the operation instead of clos- ing and advise the public of the results. Congress also must be noti- fied. A plant may not close until 15 days after a pub- lished decision. • It requires new standards for providing retail postal facilities, with attention to the needs of rural areas. These standards will affect closings of rural post offices. • For newspaper periodi- cals mailers, the legislation would lessen the threat of steep postage increases to cover reported Postal Service costs. It instead requires the Postal Regulatory Commis- sion to examine whether excess capacity in processing, transportation or delivery plays a role in the "under- water" status of the mailing class. The examination will take about two years. Following a determination that periodicals do not cover costs, postage increases of no higher than 2 percent above the cost of liv- ing price cap may be created for each year until the period- icals achieve 90 percent cost coverage. • It provides the Postal Service with significant cash relief by returning about $7 billion in retirement trust fund overpayments. The funds must be used first for buyouts of retirement- eligible employees and then may be used to pay down debt and other purposes. Passage of the 21st Century Postal Service Act would bring some stability to the postal situation – a badly needed commodity. Steve Key is executive director and general counsel for HSPA. TV Continued from Page 1 even an old-school journalist like me can see the handwrit- ing on the wall. Or the texting on the screen, if you prefer. So in a moment of "if-you- can't-beat-them-join-them" inspiration, the "Fort Report" was born. I approached Access Fort Wayne's Public Access Co ordinator Robert Ihrie about starting a weekly half-hour public-affairs show that would provide him with some news- paper-promoted content and the News-Sentinel with broader TV exposure in a professionally produced format that will also be available on our website (after its required premier on cable TV, that is). We shot our first show in the downtown studios of the Allen County Public Library. My guests were Allen County Recorder John McGauley, a Republican, and county Democrat Party spokesman Kevin Knuth – both of whom previously appeared with me as political analysts on WANE. They're both well-informed, witty and capable of disagree- ing without being jerks about it. I'm open to suggestions for the show. It will be a mix of news and commentary, spotlighting key events of the week. Guests will range from people who directly influenced those events to members of the media who cov- ered the stories. I'm sure there will be some surprises along the way as the show evolves. Maybe we'll even break a little news. Having made a living as a writer for the past 34 years, the future of journalism offers both danger and oppor- tunity. I expect the "Fort Report" to be the latter, providing News- Sentinel readers and the cable- TV audience with a new source of information presented in a credible and well-produced new way. Ihrie seems no less excited. "The great thing is that part- nering with the News-Sentinel is a different thing for us," he said, referring to his staff's higher level of involvement in the "Fort Report" than in most of its other shows. "Working with new media sources is a good thing." Exactly. People who see the "Fort Report" on our website may check out "Access Fort Wayne." People who see the show there may want to read the News-Sentinel and (how's this for old school) maybe buy a copy. And who knows? They might even be informed, provoked or entertained along the way. And I will have fulfilled my video-production obligations. That's the plan, anyway. Kevin Leininger is a colum- nist for the Fort Wayne News- Sentinel. Without publishing anything new, the Fayetteville Observer ad package created new, year-long revenue in just one week! Contact Advantage Newspaper Consultants today to learn more about creating NEW annual revenue with your existing core products. Ask us about our digital editions! 910-323-0349 | info@newspaperconsultants.com | www.newspaperconsultants.com