No. They are open to the public but not because of the state’s open government laws. Court records are considered public documents under common law. That means a person can view documents during reqular business hours at the district clerk’s office or in other specified offices where those records are kept at the county courthouse. Sometimes a judge may have a record checked out, and those records, too, can be viewed by the public by going directly to the judge’s office. A written request is not needed for court records.
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A site you should bookmark
If you’re looking for one-stop shopping to get an overview of what’s going on in the world of journalism and new media, we hope, of course, that you’ll come here to the TCCJ site and check out our Around the Web posts, where we try to pre-digest a lot of news and ideas and let you choose what you want to follow up on. But if you’re still hungry for more, go to the site above. You will find all kinds of blogs and sites designed to tell you what’s going on in the world of journalism. So bookmark it, and when you have a few extra minutes, check out one of those sites to find out the latest thinking and happenings in the changing media world.
A story in today’s New York Times chronicles the rise of online video and shows some recent statistics that indicate users’ attention spans are growing significantly. It may no longer be necessary to hit the less-than-90-seconds mark that not so long ago was the ideal length for an online video. “A few years ago, three minutes ‘watching’ your computer felt like a novelty; now, it’s as familiar as your television set,” said one online video producer.
Daniel Honigman, one of the Chicago Tribune’s social media presence, has some advice on how to mold your newspaper’s online persona. At the Tribune, Honigman was part of a team that created Colonel Tribune, a fictitious avatar who represents the news organization in social media circles.
His advice can carry over to newspaper of any size, and should fit just as well for community newspapers. If social networks are active in your community, Honigman’s advice could prove quite useful, and presents a more fun alternative than simply opening up a Facebook account under your newspaper’s name.
Community-based newspapers — in this cast, alternative newsweeklies — are finding a place for new technologies faster than traditional media, according to a news story coming out of their annual meeting.
One publisher quoted in the article above said this: “As those big guys crumble, it’s an opportunity for us. We know that they are stuck halfway between print and the web. And now they have to figure out what to do about mobile. They have far more resources than we do, but they also are much more bureaucratic.”
At the opening session, Rob Curley of Greenspun Interactive told publishers that they needed to be “of the Web” and not just “on the Web.” Curley said: “It’s not about getting people to your site. It’s about getting your site to the people.”
Managing your sales territory to generate additional revenue for you and your paper is not a case of working harder, but working smarter. Here are seven suggestions to get you headed in the right direction:
- ‘What is it you are trying to manage?’ Do you want to increase ad revenue, account count, development of a particular geographic area, ad count, or more use of a particular newspaper product?
- Optimize your selling opportunities for success by structuring your day to assure less in office, production time and more out-of-office, face-to-face selling time.
- Practice Time Management. Plan, plan, plan. Learn to prioritize. Stop procrastinating and wasting time (identify your time wasters). Know yourself and understand the value of time (both that of your client’s and your own). Say no!
- Delegate and use all available resources. Everyone at your newspaper (circulation, production, newsroom) is part of your sales and marketing team, from top to bottom. Remember, no one can do it all.
- Organize your information. Ideally, you have or will develop a pitchbook (it may be as easy and simple as a ring binder) to keep all appropriate sales information at your finger tips and presentation ready.
- Assess your accounts specifically and realistically. What degree of potential $$ exists with each account? What problems may be evident, what may change, what’s the future? Review, too, the urgency or priority of each account. Who may be at risk from competitive challenges, both from other retailers or other media?
- Reward yourself by taking care of yourself. Ensure both your professional and personal growth. Take time for you. Maintain a positive attitude, don’t dwell on past failures and rejections – use them to build on future successes. Think of a new way to handle an old problem. Keep growing. Learn from others. Have fun!!
As you grow and develop and your territory or account list changes and evolves, remember to learn and work on inventing the future rather than trying to redesign the past. Good luck!
John Zogby writes in his regular Forbes column about research data that suggest many news consumers trust online over print. Why? Zogby suggests it has to do with the deep-rooted perception bias. It’s hard to apply his conclusions to community newspapers, but the survey results are still eye opening.
This is definitely an advertising concept that I can see working for community newspapers. The Nieman Lab has a story op about MinnPost’s experiment with “real-time advertising.” They’re sort of a technologically-updated version of classified ads that are powered by micro-updates from businesses.
In a post on Journalism 2.0, Mark Biggs lists several ways to track the performance of your Web site while being realistic about what the numbers actually mean to those in your newsroom. While some of his techniques may be a little much for a smaller news operations, many of the techniques will still apply.
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A few suggestions for ad growth
Jen from Editor & Publisher has a few suggestions from Ed Strapagiel of Kubas Consultants about how to improve ad sales. Among his suggestions: stop selling in lines and inches. You’ll have to pay for the full report from Kubas, but the snippets shared by Jen are interesting in themselves.