TPA eBulletin

TPA News

TPA elects Robinson 2008-09 president

Roy Robinson, publisher of The Graham Leader and vice president of Graham Newspapers Inc., was elected June 21, as president of Texas Press Association at the organization’s 129th summer convention in Arlington.

Robinson succeeds Phil Major, publisher of the Clay County Leader, who became chairman of the board. Other newly elected officers are Terry Collier, publisher of the Fredericksburg Standard Radio Post as first vice president, Bob Brincefield, publisher of the Brownwood Bulletin as second vice president, and Chad Ferguson, of The Banner Press Newspaper in Columbus, as treasurer.

View the full slate of officers and download a PDF press release to run in your newspaper from the TPA board of directors page.

Training Resources

TPA offers free online class for sportswriters

Sports are high-interest topics in most communities and in effect act as glue that helps hold communities together. TPA is hosting the online course "Sports Writing for the Community Newspaper" July 11-Aug. 10 to help newspapers better serve that role.

The goal of the course is to help reporters who may have limited experience in sports journalism make their newspaper’s sports pages more objective, more accurate and, of course, more interesting.

The course is free for TPA member newspapers. The instructor and course author is Griff Singer.

July Braincast webinars cover InDesign, Photoshop & Acrobat PDF

Braincast will continue its affordable live webinars in July with instructor Kevin Slimp teaching:

July 2: Advance InDesign Tips & Tricks, Lesson 1
July 23: Advanced InDesign Tips & Tricks: Lesson 2
July 30: Learning to Use Photoshop Color Correction Tools
July 31: Become a PDF Guru, Part 1: Creating the Perfect PDF File

Cost is only $69. Log on to Braincast.biz to register today.

Newspaper Institute set Oct. 9-11 in Knoxville

From Oct. 9-11 the leading names in newspaper technology will gather at the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville for The 2008 Institute of Newspaper Technology.

This year classes are offered in InDesign, QuarkXPress, Photoshop, InCopy, Dreamweaver, Video on the Web, Dreamweaver, PDF Troubleshooting and much more! Trainers include Kevin Slimp, Lisa Griffin, Karl Kuntz, Rob Heller, and others teaching the latest skills in newspaper layout and design.

2008 AP Stylebook features 200 new entries

The 2008 print edition of The Associated Press Stylebook features one of the most comprehensive updates in its history, with more than 200 new entries, ranging from anti-virus to iPhone to WMD.

Other new entries include anti-spyware, high-definition, outsourcing, podcast, text messaging, social networking, snail mail and Wikipedia and such sports terms as minicamp and wild card.

Among the outdated words gone from the new spiral-bound Stylebook are barmaid, blue blood, malarkey, milquetoast, Photostat, riffraff and WAC, which is no longer used by the U.S. military but may describe a woman who served in what had been the Women’s Army Corps.

Other changes in the A to Z update include the entry for "African-American," which previously indicated that the "preferred term is black." Now, the African-American entry states: "Acceptable for an American black person of African descent. Black is also acceptable. The terms are not necessarily interchangeable."

In another significant revision, "mentally retarded" is no longer the preferred term, replaced by "mentally disabled."

The entry for "Sept. 11," previously the preferred term in describing the terrorist attacks in 2001, now notes, "Also acceptable is 9/11."

AP also offers a subscription-based Stylebook Online. The print AP Stylebook is $18.95 plus shipping and handling. Order online.

Columns

Putting it on the record: get the type right

By Ed Henninger

Records copy is an important part of the content of every community newspaper. We use it in items such as police and fire reports, calendars and the like. Without records copy, our readers would be much less informed. read more...

General Interest

2009 Directory Photo Contest deadline Oct. 9, 2008

The deadline to enter the 2009 Directory Photo Contest is Oct. 9. The contest is open to all TPA members.

Entries must have been taken by a regular staff member or employee of the newspaper/organization and can include published and/or non-published photographs. Multiple entries by one photographer may be submitted.

Please clearly identify the photographer, the affiliate newspaper or organization and the subject.

To enter, send an original color photograph of a landscape, event or any scene that depicts Texas. Digital files should be a minimum 170 resolution, letter size (8 1/2" x 11") and saved as high quality jpeg or eps files. Send via e-mail or mail on CD-Rom.

One winner will be chosen by the TPA staff and the winning photograph will be printed on the 2008 Texas Newspaper Directory with credit given inside to the photographer. All entries will be returned, except e-mail files.

TPA, Attn: Pauline Word, 718 West Fifth St., Austin, Texas 78701

Survey: Sports departments mostly white, male

Texas daily newspapers are doing a slightly better job of having racial diversity and women in their sports departments than dailies in other states, according to a new survey of sports editors.

The survey found that of 20 dailies with people of color in their sports department two of those newspapers are in Texas, the Houston Chronicle and Herald-Zeitung in New Braunfels. And the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is one of 22 dailies to have a woman in the department, according the survey results.

But overall newspapers received a grade of C for racial hiring practices and an F for gender hiring practices in key positions covered in the 2008 Racial and Gender Report Card of the Associated Press Sports Editors.

The report shows that in 2008, 94 percent of sports editors, 89 percent of assistant sports editors, 88 percent of columnists, 87 percent of reporters and 89 percent of copy editors/designers are white, and those same positions 94, 90, 94, 91 and 84 percent are male.

The 2008 report was published by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida for APSE. read the report summary online...

Iowa foundation establishes storm fund for newspaper workers

The damage to much of Iowa from the tornados and floods of 2008 has been well-documented by the newspapers of Iowa. One of the stories behind the story is the personal hardship suffered by many of the newspaper employees helping to deliver critical weather information to the public. Another story is the generosity of newspaper people helping newspaper people to cope with these disasters.

The Iowa Newspaper Foundation has established a fund to help Iowa newspaper employees, some of whom have contributed to the outstanding coverage despite their personal upheaval.

Send tax-deductible checks to Iowa Media Employees Disaster Relief Fund at the Iowa Newspaper Foundation, 319 E. Fifth St., Des Moines, IA 50309, or go to www.inanews.com to make a credit card donation.

NIE

100 ways to use the newspaper in the classroom

Did you know there are at least 100 different ways students can use the newspaper in the classroom to learn?

The Arkansas Press Association Newspaper In Education staff has a list of 100 ways to use the newspaper (PDF) compiled from the Newspaper Association of America Foundation and other sources on its Web site. The list is broken down by subject and includes grade-level activities.

Make your own newspaper dress

FamilyFun.com has a fun activity for students to try at home during the summer months — making a newspaper dress. The Web site has instructions and a materials list for children to make a dress out of newsprint and craft and butcher paper.

Agriculture resources available for NIE programs

The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides students, parents, and teachers with youth-geared information and resources related to agriculture.

Some of the topics include "My Pyramid for Kids," "Ag in the Classroom Kids Zone," and more. View the USDA kids page online.