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Monthly Luncheon Report

(Wednesday, April 9, 2008 PCC Monthly Luncheon)

Understanding Suburban Media's Influence

MODERATOR

Jim Elsener, Publisher
Business Ledger

PANELISTS

Don Kopriva, Editor
Business Ledger

Anne Halston, Asst. City Editor
West Bureau, Daily Herald

John O'Brien, Deputy Managing Editor
SouthtownStar

Ted Slowik, Managing Editor
The Sun-Times Media Group

PROGRAM SUMMARY

Jim Elsener (from left), Ted Slowik, Anne Halston, John O'Brien and Don Kopriva. Photo by Ted Lacey.

By Sue Masaracchia-Roberts

With the daily print media marketplace consolidating, and often shrinking news staffs, important placement opportunities still exist at the often overlooked suburban media outlets. This fact was put into focus at the Publicity Club of Chicago’s (PCC) annual suburban meeting in April by Business Ledger editor Don Kopriva; Daily Herald assistant city editor Anne Halston; Daily Southtown deputy managing editor John O’Brien; and Sun Publications managing editor Ted Slowick. Jim Elsener, the publisher of the Business Ledger, moderated.

James E. Elsener – Program Moderator

jelsener@thebusinessledger.com

Jim Elsener founded The Business Ledger in 1996, which today has a full-time staff of 10, a circulation of 11,000 and a readership that exceeds 40,000. The bi-weekly publication serves business executives in the DuPage County, west and northwest Cook County, the Fox Valley and Will County. Elsener began his professional career in the news "trenches" as a reporter and editor at the City News Bureau of Chicago, followed by serving for five years as a business reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

Before helping to create The Business Ledger and becoming its vice president and editor, Don Kopriva spent a good part of his career working in public relations. So as a former PR guy, Kopriva has an appreciation for what professionals face on a daily basis.

His previous positions include stints at the Chicago Sun-Times as assistant managing editor – administration; with the 1984 Olympic Games as director of the Main Press Center; and in public relations posts at state universities in Illinois and Wisconsin. He also has owned and operated his own public relations and marketing firm.

The focus of the biweekly publication is business news, issues and trends. The publication includes the BusinessEdge Online, a periodic Book of Lists, Market Facts and a publication called Forward, targeted toward high school students who do not plan to attend college.

Urging PR people to know the paper and its focus, Kopriva said, "Everything emanates from economic development. It’s all about business-to-business – where people do business. Business is the heart and soul of most areas. We are looking for the news behind the news, the stories behind the stories. What do they really do? If you live in Kalamazoo, MI, but you own a business in Naperville, we could be interested in a story about the business in Naperville. If there is an environmental angle pertaining to the green movement, there are different needs and wants."

He receives about 250 e-mails a day "after weeding through the spam." He does look at his e-mails and especially looks for stories buried underneath the lead. He gets a few faxes. If he gets a phone call, he asks for a pitch in 25 words or less." However, he warned professionals NOT to call to ask if a release has been received. For e-mails, he urges PR people to provide a phone number so if he needs to contact them right away, he is able to.

Having a responsibility to local business, Kopriva added, "If you are in New York calling, most likely you are "willy nilly" sending out releases to local media. If you are based locally, we will want to know you and make friends with you."

He encourages trend spotting -- looking for opportunities to tweak the web and use online resources like videos. "We are learning to use these just like you are," he said. "There is a learning curve."

If photos are sent, make sure they are high resolution – at least 300 dpi. Photos like those from business grand openings are used on the inside back cover for a page called "Photo Finish," however they cannot be used as the story. If photos are taken at seminars or events, make sure the photos submitted do not include more than three or four people. "We need good head shots, especially photos of those heading companies."

What The Business Ledger does NOT cover is dance concerts, local social events or plays and does not offer a blog. "These are of no interest to us. Know our readership and coverage area and what our paper covers." He added, "We want to have you partner with us, just make sure that you offer stories that are informational rather than promotional. Some stories are just better than others."

John O’Brien

JObrien@Dailysouthtown.com

O’Brien has been in the newspaper business for 15 years, spending 10 of those years with the Southtown. He’s responsible for the metro desk, the features section and the sports section.

The Southtown Star, which covers a portion of the south side of Chicago and all the south suburbs, offers hyper local coverage and includes reader submitted news and photos. It is the product of a merger of two previously independent papers and comes out twice a week, "offering the best of both worlds. It fills an editorial niche." The publishers also offer a publication called Elite, targeting a higher end income level.

"A person from Orland Park donating a kidney is a good story for us," said O’Brien, "relevant to our readers and localized."

When sending O’Brien an e-mail, make sure to paste information and photos into the body of the document rather than just attaching them. As someone who receives hundreds of e-mails a day, he "triages" his e-mails quickly. To help "sell" him an article idea, he suggests, "Use a good headline. A lot of time we will take releases word for word," he said, "however, if it is submitted in Word, we don’t need to reformat it."

He warns PR people to be judicious regarding making follow up calls. "Calling us after sending every release will guarantee that you will get on our bad side. Instead, work to develop a relationship with us."

All the online and breaking news appearing in print is controlled by "the mother ship" (downtown) but "every paper has editorial people assigned to Web duties, so that we do have some local control over what goes on our Web site," notes O’Brien.

For their online publication, they are beginning to use special video and a photo gallery. "Every story will soon be accompanied by a video story, too, as they are teaching new tricks to old dogs," he said. "If you are pitching, mention video opportunities, especially since our websites have RSS feeds as well."

He offers a sheet he sends to groups, detailing how to submit photos. He prefers high resolution JPG formats of at least 300 dpi.

Stories suggested must involve his coverage area; however he encourages people to contact him if they are unsure about the fit. "Send releases to me and I’ll make sure they get to the right person. I also welcome questions."

Having been with the Sun-Times Media Group for 10 years, Ted Slowik currently serves as managing editor of The Naperville Sun and seven weekly Sun publications a daily circulation of about 17,000, serving such towns as Downers Grove, Lisle, Wheaton, Bolingbrook and Plainfield. The papers are part of the Sun-Times Media Group.

As resources are limited and his publications are very geographically specific, Slowik prefers e-mailed press releases that are straightforward with just words and text in the body. "Tell me if photos are available, but don’t include them, as our files have size limits, adding, "I want the opportunity to respond so I can ask for photos."

He encourages stories that involve new businesses in town, advancements, promotions, and other people news. A story might have broader appeal, but needs to involve local content, like a Lisle resident who went to Antarctica. "If I can copy and paste a press release and just add a photo, it’s a no brainer," he said.

However, Slowik does not feel obliged to respond to every pitch. "I am happy to talk to people, being professional and courteous, however if a story does not apply to a coverage area, I am not going to use it."

Slowik began a blog a year ago involving the Naperville schools. "Readers like to participate in the process and dialog, but we still want professionals to report the news," he added.

As the Sun-Times Media Group has a partnership with CBS-TV, they are always "looking for video content as well. This is the direction of the future."

The situation with the group is unique as "we are partners, but also competitors. We are losing advertising revenues [from businesses] but are getting pitches for stories [about them]." As a result, he urges PR professionals to be discreet about pitches. The papers compete for the same revenue.

As an assistant city editor at the Daily Herald's DuPage County Bureau, Anne Halston works with a staff of 10 (seven reporters and three community news coordinators)  and focuses primarily on local, west suburban news and events, including schools, charities and festivals.  Working at the Daily Herald since 1992, Halston started her newspaper career as a reporter at the Elgin Courier News and the now-defunct Daily Journal in Wheaton. The Daily Herald covers the north, west and northwest suburbs including DuPage, Cook, Lake, Kane and McHenry counties. The newspaper has bureaus in Arlington Heights (headquarters), Lisle, Elgin and Libertyville. 

The Daily Herald also publishes the Spanish language paper Reflejos, a special publication called Beat for the18 to 34 year-old demographic, as well a niche advertising publication and Web postings. According to Halston, 90 percent of their stories come from PR people and about half to three quarters of the stories in the print edition also reside online.

"I receive 200 e-mails a day and cannot possibly respond to each of them," she said. "Most of the stuff we use is hyper local and involve things we have not heard about before. We love to receive press releases we can easily create our stories from. Those releases are as complete as possible."

The Herald includes several sections over the course of a week, including sections on trends, health and fitness and business. "Where are people from? Where do they work? It’s all about location, location, location," said Halston. "With staff and freelance budget cutbacks, we look for free content."

As a result, the editors have approached charities to provide them with information about what they do. The reception the Herald has received has been tremendous.

The paper is revamping their online publication system and is working to put even more stories online. "Now it is very cumbersome to pull up stories that ran [recently]," said Halston. "The new system will go live in June. There is a separate editor ushering the online stories through, but I’m posting stories and breaking news."

Halston prefers e-mail contact, but still enjoys getting phone calls – something she finds she gets fewer of lately. She said, "I still like to hear the excitement in someone’s voice, but I like e-mail also. However, I do not like having e-mails that include blind copies that go to others all over the company. You can send copies to 10 people but don’t blind copy us."

Since Halston is equipped only with an older version of Word, she cautions PR people that she may have difficulty opening attachments. It is best to paste the text into the body of the e-mail. She also prefers receiving text that includes home towns of those involved and captions for the photos.

Blogging is a new addition. She began to blog on their youth product and suspects they will do more.

The business staff uses the newswires, however, she said, "You might send a release to an editor also if it is a promotion. The business calendar that runs in the Neighbor section doesn’t use the newswires and doesn’t zone as much – and they will run photos with stories."

Although "newspaper people are unhappy and on shrinking staffs, it is an exciting time," Halston said. "The job has been changing since television began. The way we do our jobs is changing. We are always looking to PR people for new ideas for how we present stories. We can work together!"   

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