The Indiana Publisher

Jobs: Talent desired around the state immediately. Page 2 PR over access? Something to chew on from Steve Key. Page 4 Hey, can they do that? Steve Key an- swers your legal ques- tions. Page 3 Emotional Print: How to maximize emotional connection. Page 2 INSIDE Publisher The Indiana Volume 82, Issue 7 • July 2017 Published on second Thursday monthly A bout 90 Indiana news- paper executives and staffers took advantage of training opportunities made available by the Hoosier State Press Association Foundation in June. Half attended Public Notice Advertising Workshops in Columbus or Anderson featur- ing HSPA executive director and general counsel Steve Key. Key stressed the importance of public notice advertising, not just as another revenue source for newspapers, but a vital piece of government transpar- ency in a democratic govern- ment. Acknowledging that pub- lic notice advertising has often been taken for granted, he drew upon Angela Davis' character in the movie The Help to stress the importance of public notices and staffers who deal with the advertising every day. "You is kind, you is smart, you is important," Key said. Customer service is a major component for the preservation of the publication requirement for public notice advertising. He said newspapers need to be experts in the field to help gov- ernment officials and attorneys correctly place these important notices. During the 3 ½ hour ses- sion, HSPA's executive director explained how to calculate the state-capped rate for govern- ment places notices, which notices are eligible for the spe- cial rate, and in which news- papers a government unit is required to publish its notices. Key also suggested ways newspapers could better draw attention to public notice adver- tising and how the ad staffs need to communicate with the news staffs to take advantage of the stories that can be gener- ated from public notice adver- tising. HSPA also shared cop- ies of the new Public Notice Advertising Guidebook. This 50-plus page guide is available to newspapers to answer com- mon questions that arise with public notices, which often are also referred to as "legals." The booklet can be downloaded from the HSPA website. Training key to industry success W e are a storytelling society. In busi- ness, the art of telling a good story often comes down to your ability to communicate effectively the highlights of your business purpose. Telling someone facts about your company, but doing so in an engaging and effective way is a key to communication, and thus sales. I talk a lot about the story of the media indus- try. Despite the regular beatings our advertising departments take from agencies and advertisers, the newspaper industry story is a great one. Digital continues to disrupt every segment of our lives. It was just announced that Amazon was purchasing Whole Foods. The impact of just that one transaction will send ripples of innovation and change throughout our life, including the way we purchase food. The digital disruption of the media industry has the potential to be our friend if we harness the power of the changes. In the battle of local media companies, the Digital disruption benefits news advertising Van Baalen See Disrupt, Page 3 By Pete Van Baalen Fort Wayne Newspapers Allison Carter shares social media best practices with Reporters Workshop attendees. Due July 28 2017 Better Newspaper Contest Entries Details at hspa.com/newsroom-seminar-2017 I n 2014, then-Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a law passed by the Indiana legis- lature that eliminated newspaper notice of local government budgets. Before the law was enacted, all local government units in Indiana — from cities and counties to libraries and con- servation districts — were required to publish their annual budget proposals and estimated tax rates in a local newspaper. Now they are only required to post them on the website of the state's Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF), which was one of the main proponents of the new law. Each year since the new law passed, the Hoosier State Press Association (HSPA) has asked the agency for traffic data for the Budget Notices for Local Government page (http://bud- getnotices.in.gov) on its website. To its credit, DLGF voluntarily provided the following num- bers: • Last half of 2014 – 4,600 unique visitors • Last half of 2015 – 5,500 unique visitors • Last half of 2016 – 7,000 unique visitors In case you're wondering, those aren't daily or weekly or monthly traffic figures. Those num- bers reflect the total visits to the page for each entire six-month period. As puny as they are, they actually overstate the number of Indiana citizens who now receive notice of their government's proposed budgets. First, like most websites a signifiant portion of DLGF's website traffic is probably generated by Google search referrals from people who live outside of the state. So the unique visitor totals provided by DLGF are inflated by the incidence of non-residents who visit the page. Of course, public notice laws aren't designed for the benefit of non-residents. Second, DLGF directs local public officials to check its website every year to make sure their budgets are posted, according to HSPA Executive Director Steve Key. Leave aside the fact that this almost certainly means that some of those budgets never get posted. Since Indiana has 2,000+ local government units, it also sug- gests that much of the non-foreign traffic to DLGF's budget page may very well come from government officials. One is left to wonder: Has anyone in Indiana who doesn't work for the government or media read any of the proposed budgets submitted by local government units since the new law took effect in 2014? See Budget, Page 4 Budget notices on government website leaves Indiana citizens in the dark By Richard Karpel Public Notice Resource Center See Training, Page 4 Everything Holiday! INAEA Revenue Sharing Conference Call Thursday July 20th 2pm EDT Dial: 1-857-232-0158 Code: 599522 Executives from around Indiana share revenue ideas to bolster holiday sales. Questions? Email plego@hspa.com

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