Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/56850
March 1, 2012 Meetings reaffirm papers I t was nice to see a lot of old faces as well as several new ones at the recent Annual Meetings and Government Conference. For those who were there, thank you for coming. For those who weren't, let me share a little bit of what you missed – and urge you to attend the HSPA and HSPA Foundation event next year. Let's start with a giant tip of the cap to the HSPA staff. From Executive Director and General Counsel Steve Key to Foundation Director Karen Braeckel to Administrative Assistant Shawn Goldsby to Com munications Specialist Milissa Tuley to MAP adver tising director Pamela Lego to Office Manager Yvonne Yeadon, the conference is truly a group effort. We're blessed to have such a great staff. Next, let's talk about the prizes. Randall Shields, pub lisher at The Daily Reporter (Greenfield), won an iPad 2. Randall's round table ideas were voted the best of the best, and he was justly rewarded for sharing. There were also other great prizes, including gift cards. How about a free room? For those who didn't want to make the drive to Indy two days in a row, HSPA gener ously paid the bill for a night at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown. Can't speak for everyone, but it was awfully enjoyable to be able to stay late, share quality time with colleagues and even enjoy a cocktail or three. The speakers were out standing. Legislation Continued from Page 1 business and reserves the right to ignore attempts by the legislature to tell it how to conduct judicial business. Republican leadership in the Senate and House seeks protection in the Access to Public Records Act for con stituent correspondence and work product. Work product already is covered in the stat ute but not defined. The four legislative caucus es declared constituent cor respondence protected under the First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances in 2001. They reserved the right to protect mail and email from public disclosure at their dis cretion. Otherwise, the leadership argued that there might be a chilling effect of Hoosiers' willingness to share intimate details of health or other family issues when they seek help in dealing with state Stories Continued from Page 1 reporter to Indianapolis and provides student journalists with real newspaper experi ence," Key said. "Readers, the My Two Cents By Tim Timmons First there was a dynamic publisher panel that featured The Indianapolis Star's Karen Crotchfelt, CNHI's Robyn McCloskey, KPC's Terry Householder and The Elkhart Truth's Brandon Erlacher. This honorable group gave us insights as to some of the good things going on in each of their businesses. Chris Lee came all the way from The Deseret News (Salt Lake City) to take us on a trip into hell and brought us back out again (I think). Tonda Rush, chief execu tive officer of the National Newspaper Association, helped us understand the madness of postal issues, and Indianapolis attorney Daniel Byron gave us some great tools to avoid libel problems. Of course there was the Legislators Luncheon, when everyone had a chance to break bread with legislators. If nothing else, that time alone makes the conference worthwhile. Perhaps the biggest high light was the two awards given out. Retiring Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard was honored with the Frank O'Bannon Sunshine Award for his sup port of open government. And Tribune-Star (Terre Haute) Editor Max Jones joined a who's who of Indiana newspaper elite as this year's agencies or suggest legisla tive action. HSPA believes the con stituent correspondence and work product issues could be adequately addressed. HSPA's concern is that the Republican Senate leadership may seek broad language that effectively removes the legislature from the Access to Public Records Act. "While the current situ ation prevents the public from suing the legislature for abuses in public records requests, there remains the leverage of the court of public opinion because the General Assembly still takes the posi tion that it complies with the public access laws," said Steve Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel. "Removal of the legislature from the access laws would eliminate the court of public opinion as the last check on legislative abuse." While caught up in the concern over the looming Supreme Court decision, HSPA maintains that the newspapers, and the students all benefit." Butler journalism students began covering state govern ment last spring to experi ence public affairs report ing. Butler's program is dif Distinguished Service Award recipient. But more than anything, at least for me, the conference reaffirmed the strength of our industry. In light of the toughest few years we've seen, we're still standing. Great ideas were still shared. Growth was reported. While one revenue category slides, another one goes up. While news becomes more fragmented than ever, inter est in the news we offer remains high. A few years ago at this con ference, Gov. Mitch Daniels spoke to our assemblage and admitted he was a newspaper guy at heart. Chief Justice Shepard said he is, too. Smart people usually are. Our industry, like every other industry in this great land, continues to face chal lenges. It's harder today than it was 10 or 20 years ago. That seems to be the way of the world now. But the reality is that this state's newspapers offer our readers information. Information that's credible. Information that's accurate. Information that's timely. Oftentimes it's information they can't get anywhere else. Almost always it's informa tion that's important. The Annual Meetings and Government Conference, your conference, was a good reminder of that. Tim Timmons is publisher of The Paper of Montgomery County (Crawfordsville) and The Times (Noblesville) and president of the HSPA board of directors. provisions of H.B. 1093 did not impact the legislature's ability to protect records from public inspection. What H.B. 1093 and S.B. 92 did was allow a judge to levy a civil fine of up to $100 ($500 for a repeat offender) against a public official who deliberately violates either the Open Door Law or Access to Public Records Act. "With all the safeguards in the legislation to protect against accidental violations or legitimate arguments as to the application of the law, the only ones who should have any concern are those who intend to ignore the public's right to know," Key said. The bill also allows a citizen to request email notice of the meetings of public agencies. Agencies could opt to post notices on the web instead. "You wouldn't think legis lation would be required for something that's just good public service, but some Hoosiers who have asked for such simple notification have been rebuffed," Key said. ferent from the Franklin College Statehouse Bureau, which operates a yearround Statehouse bureau. For more information on Butler University's coverage, contact Loni Smith McKown at lmckown@butler.edu. News in brief Support e-subscription proposal The National News paper Association is seek ing Indiana publishers' help in supporting a pro posal to allow electronic subscriptions to be count ed as paid circulation by the U.S. Postal Service. If the proposal is accept ed, newspapers could count esubscriptions when they complete the Statement of Ownership in the fall, according to Stan Schwartz of NNA. Publishers can sub mit comments of sup port through March 5. Correspondence must include the submitter's name and address. Email comments to ProductClassification@ usps.gov. Mail comments to Manager, Product Classification, U.S. Postal Service, 475 L'Enfant Plaza SW., Room 4446, Washington, DC 20260 5015. Or publishers can pro vide comments through a short survey at www.surveymonkey.com/ s/YYW27WR. All signed surveys will be forwarded to the Postal Service. Anonymous submis sions will not be forward ed. The esubscriptions proposal is the culmina tion of four years of effort by NNA's postal commit tee, spearheaded by Max Heath. The proposal can be found at www.gpo.gov/ fdsys. Type "Periodicals via Electronic" in the search field and download the document. Lugar, challenger agree to debate The Indiana Debate Commission will host Sen. Richard Lugar and State Treasurer Richard Mourdock in a Republican primary debate on April 11. The first debate of the year hosted by the com mission – and the only primary debate – will be scheduled at the studios of WFYI in Indianapolis. Details on format, mod erator and broadcast time will be announced later, said Max Jones, president of the commission and editor of the Tribune-Star (Terre Haute). Lugar has held the U.S. Senate seat for 35 years. Mourdock is the Indiana state treasurer. The debate commis sion, an Indiana nonprofit group made up of citizens and media, will provide a free live broadcast feed to news organizations interested in carrying the debate. Jones said the commis sion plans as many as five debates this year from the primary through the gen eral election. He said the commission will continue to engage voters to submit questions for consideration in all 2012 debates. The Truth will outsource printing The Elkhart Truth, a familyowned newspa per, will outsource the print ing of its daily edition to the South Bend Tribune starting March 6. In a meeting with employees, Publisher Brandon Erlacher explained the change is Brandon Erlacher Page 3 necessary to keep The Truth competitive and to serve its readers. The outsourcing will impact 24 employees, 10 fulltime and 14 part time. These workers are being offered assistance including severance pack ages. The paper will still be printed seven days a week and delivered to subscribers' homes and businesses at the usual time. There's more time for sunshine The deadline for nomi nating a Sunshine Week 2012 Local Hero has been extended to March 7 to give people more time to complete their nomina tions. To nominate someone as a Freedom of Information Local Hero, use the short online form at the Sunshine Week website, http://sunshineweek.org/ LocalHeroes.aspx. Winners will be announced during Sun shine Week, which begins March 11. The firstplace win ner will have his or her expenses covered to attend and be recognized at the American Society of News Editors annual convention in Washington from April 24. Send promotions, announcements, staff changes and other corporate news to mtuley@hspa.com.