The Indiana Publisher

Page 2 December 2017 HSPA staff Steve Key, executive director and general counsel skey@hspa.com • (317) 624-4427 Pamela Lego, MAP advertising director plego@hspa.com • (812) 350-7711 Yvonne Yeadon, office manager yyeadon@hspa.com • (317) 624-4433 Shawn Goldsby, statewide advertising manager sgoldsby@hspa.com • (317) 803-4772 Ruth Witmer, communications specialist news@hspa.com • (317) 624-4430 The Indiana Publisher is published monthly by Hoosier State Press Association, 41 E. Washington St., Suite 301, Indianapolis, IN, 46204, (317) 803-4772. ISSN 0019-6711 USPS 058-730. Periodicals-class postage paid at Indianapolis, Ind., and at additional mailing office. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Indiana Publisher, 41 E. Washington St., Suite 301, Indianapolis, IN, 46204, (317) 803-4772, Fax (317) 624-4428 Website: www.hspa.com Subscriptions $25 per year. Ad rates furnished upon request. HSPA Foundation Board of Directors HSPA Foundation Officers HSPA Foundation Board of Directors HSPA Board of Directors HSPA Officers President: Chuck Wells, AIM Media Indiana Vice President/Secretary: Patrick Lanman, Vevay Media Group HSPA Board Members Chris White, The Times Media Co. Pete Van Baalen, Fort Wayne Newspapers Beverly Joyce, CNHI Bill Connelly, LaGrange Publishing co. Cory Bollinger, Schurz Communications, Inc. Curt Kovener, The Crothersville TImes President: Michael J. Christman, Fort Wayne Newspapers Vice President: William "B.J." Riley, Horizon Publications Nancy Grossman, Leader Publishing Mark Miller, The News-Banner (Bluffton) John Rumbach, The Herald (Jasper) Bill Hackney, The News Dispatch (Michigan CIty) and The LaPorte County Herald-Argus Greg Perrotto, Kankakee Valley Publishing HSPA Calendar Feb. 8 May. 3 Aug. 2 Oct. 4 2018 INAEA Revenue Idea Sharing Exchange Calls Hall of Fame sports writer Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Wash- burn, 63, of Lafayette, passed away Nov. 29, 2017 in his home. He was born Sept. 20, 1954 to the late Paul "Sonny" Washburn Jr. and the late LaVerna Max- ine Harris Washburn in La- fayette. "Wash" as he was known to everyone who was fortu- nate enough to meet and spend any time with him, knew at age 13 he wanted to be a sports writer. He achieved that goal shortly after graduation from Jeffer- son High School in 1972 when he accepted a part- time writing position with the Journal & Courier. Fol- lowing graduation from Purdue University in 1976, "Wash" had interviews with several news outlets, includ- ing the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Buffalo News. But Lafayette was in Wash's heart, and he became a full-time sports writer for the J&C. He won many sports writing awards during his career but he cher- ished winning the Indiana Sportswriter of the Year Award in 1991. He covered every Indiana high school boys' basketball state finals from 1976 to 1994. That assignment was fitting for "Wash," whose first exposure to Hoosier Hysteria came as a 4-month- old in the old Lafayette Jeff gymnasium on Ninth Street. Sonny and Maxine picked a great first game for their son, Marion Crawley's Bronchos vs. Oscar Robert- son and Crispus Attucks. In 1967, "Wash" and his parents were among the 14,200 in attendance for the dedication game of Mackey Arena that featured Rick Mount and the B o i l e r m a k e r s against John Wood- en's UCLA Bruins. Twenty-seven years later, he was as- signed to cover Pur- due basketball, an assignment he held for nearly 20 years until his departure from the paper. He continued to cover the Boilermakers for other news outlets, including the victo- ry against Louisville in Mackey Arena the evening before his passing. "Wash" received the Sil- ver Medal Award from the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011, joining a group of recipients that in- cluded two men he wrote about frequently in his ca- reer, Purdue basketball coach Gene Keady and In- diana basketball coach Bob Knight. The year 2006 was also memorable for "Wash," as he earned in- duction into the Jefferson High School Hall of Fame and the PONY Baseball Hall of Fame. He was an encyclopedia of sports knowledge to both readers and co-workers. "Wash" authored three books: "Tales from Indiana High School Basketball," "Gene Keady: The Truth and Nothing But The Truth," and "A Fantastic Ride," the autobiography of Midwest car dealer Bob Rohrman. Besides sports, his pas- sions in life were his wife, Cheryl, and son, Jade Ryan Washburn. "Wash" was proud when his son chose to follow in his footsteps as a sports writer and even more proud when a couple of Jade's stories were pub- lished in the J&C. For J&C staff reflections on Washburn, visit https:// tinyurl.com/jeffwashburn. Hall of Fame sports writer Jeff Washburn dies at 63 Calls are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. EDT. Call 857-232-0158 and enter code #599522. Stay in touch: Check out hspa.com for event updates. Follow us on Twitter at @OurRight2Know. Managers need to lead, set expectations By Pete Van Baalen Fort Wayne Newspapers Meeting a sales manager for the first time, I always like to learn about their background. It is always good to figure out how they got to where they are. Generally, it tells you about the type of manager they are with their staff. In one case, Mary had run a daycare center and somehow ended up leading an advertising sales depart- ment. Many times as managers we joke about needing to be babysitters as a part of our required back- ground for job success, but in this case it really was. Every sales department in different, but generally speaking the high perform- ing departments have high energy and a buzz in them. In Mary's case, it was a quiet department. I asked her why it was so quiet. With a dower look on her face, she told me this was the expectation. I asked her what she did the motivate her team and to make sales fun. Her response was "This isn't suppose to be fun. This is work." A sales department should not be a circus, but keeping a sales force motivated and productive requires creating a productive and fun environ- ment. This means making some noise. I was reminded of all this after reading a blog post by Shawn Karol Sandy titled "Silence is deadly: 3 reasons why your sales floor is too quiet." She's given this issue an official diagnosis: "Quiet Selling Syndrome." Your sales force likely spending way too much time on nonproductive endeavors. The typical salesperson is engaged with customers and building relationships 15% of the time according to the article. Their day is filled with meetings, reports, email, social media, operational issues and hiding behind a computer instead of calling on customers. Take a walk through your sales department any day at 10:30 am. Unfortunately, you're likely find many of your team in the office on their computer. Maybe they're being productive, but likely they are doing this because they are just filling up time doing other things rather than the most important part of their job; calling on customers and asking for sales. Sandy writes, "They're not getting face to face with prospective new customers, because they're not picking up the phone - which is where you make meetings happen." So far, I've spent a lot of time talking about what the salesperson isn't doing. But a lot of the blame really falls on what the sales manager is not doing. The three symptoms of "Quiet Selling Syndrome" are issues with the sales process, a lack of leadership and the wrong players on the sales team. It is easy to blame sales reps for not getting on the phone or in front of pros- pects. But I believe people want to be led, and often you will find that they are not being told what needs to get done. Sales managers need to provide specific goals and expectations, and then hold them accountable to achieving those standards. Managers have plenty on their plate. As we've all reduced organizations to run leaner, managers find themselves with more balls to juggle day in, day out. If you make a priority of having a focused and productive sales team, then juggling some of those other balls might be a little easier. Managers have to get out of their offices and on to the sales floor to provide strong leadership. Once you've established expectations and have provided the leadership to make it happen, you might discover you don't have the right team. The old phrase, "Change the people or change the people" still rings true today. Establish training to teach your team what you expect. You'll quickly discover who wants to be better, and which ones that can be better vs. the ones that are not a part of your long range plans. Reluctance to get on the phone or in front of a customer cannot be tolerated going forward. Van Baalen Washburn Longtime Journal & Courier, WASK newsman Max Showalter dies at 72 Max Showalter, of Main- eville Ohio, formerly of La- fayette. Beloved husband of Arlene (Stewart) Show- alter. Devoted father of Amy (Derek) Jackson. Proud grandfather of Bodie Jackson. Max is preceded in death by his parents Donal and Kay Showalter, sister Nancy Gore and brother Jimmy Showalter. Max passed away Sunday, December 3, 2017 at the age of 72 after a long battle with cancer. Max was born in Marion & grew up working in his parent's gro- cery store in Upland. He graduated from Jefferson High School in Upland and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Marion College. Max started his broad casting career in Frankfort at the local radio station. He went on to work in ra- dio for the next 20 years at various radio stations, in- cluding KFIZ in Fond du Lac Wisconsin and WASK in La- fayette. Max left WASK to pursue a career in report- ing for the Jour- nal and Courier in Lafayette, where he retired in 2012. He and Arlene then moved to Maineville Ohio, to be closer to their daughter and her family and to be able to attend all of their grandson's sports activi- ties. Max was an avid Jim- my Buffett fan and was the President of the Lafayette chapter of the Jimmy Buf- fett fan club, Parrotheads in Paradise. Max also loved to listen to Bluegrass music and was also the President of the Fiddlers Group in La- fayette. He also loved baseball, in particular, the Chicago White Sox and at- tended their games as much as he could. For J&C staff reflections on Showalter, visit https://ti- nyurl.com/maxshowalter. Showalter

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