Weekly Roundup

By Lindsey Loving April 29, 2016

Member Announcements:

Digital First Media to Sell The Salt Lake Tribune to Paul Huntsman (Digital First Media)
Digital First Media announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell The Salt Lake Tribune and its affiliates (the “Tribune”) to Paul Huntsman, son of businessman and philanthropist Jon M. Huntsman, Sr.

GateHouse Media’s Propel Marketing named Google AdWords business partner (GateHouse Media, LLC)
GateHouse Media’s Propel Marketing was recently named a Google AdWords Premier Small & Medium Sized Business Partner. The program helps connect partners with businesses that want help creating, managing and optimizing online advertising campaigns. Propel was one of only 34 U.S. businesses to be named.

The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema receives the James Beard Award (Washington Post)
Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post’s chief restaurant critic, was honored with the James Beard Award on Tuesday, April 26 for his 11-part series on America’s Best Food Cities.

CNHI journalists receive national SPJ awards (Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.)
Two CNHI newspapers in Oklahoma have received national recognition for distinguished journalism, winning top honors in the annual Society of Professional Journalists editorial excellence contest.

The Post’s Sudarsan Raghavan honored with 2016 Osborn Elliott Prize (Washington Post)
Raghavan, the Post’s Cairo bureau chief, has been selected as the winner of the prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia for his coverage of Afghanistan over the past year.

Staff Announcements:

The New York Times: The New York Times Company announced that David Rubin has been named senior vice president and head of brand.

The Wall Street Journal: Bob Rose has been named print editor at The Wall Street Journal. He most recently served as the Journal’s New York bureau chief.

News Media Alliance Announcements:

Upcoming Webinar: Programmatic Opportunity, and How to Capitalize on it!
Members: Join us on Thursday, May 19 for a webinar led by Mike Smith of Centro, who will demystify the programmatic space, and demonstrate how publishers around the country are getting bigger shares of their local advertiser’s digital budget by leveraging programmatic technology. Members only; log-in required.

‘Rieder: Lots of buyers for newspapers’ (USA Today)
President & CEO David Chavern is quoted on the value of investing in the newspaper business.

What We’re Reading:

Google tests feature that lets media companies, marketers publish directly to search results (The Wall Street Journal)
The search giant has opened the feature to a range of small businesses, media companies and political candidates, allowing their stories – published to a dedicated page on Google – to surface directly in search results.

The Wall Street Journal website — paywalled from the very beginning — turns 20 years old today (Nieman Lab)
The Wall Street Journal has (almost) never been free to read online. When the full website — then called the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition — officially debuted online 20 years ago today, it was free for a few months. It was always the case that the Journal was going to charge for its online edition.

Twitter aims to boost its visibility by switching from “Social Networking” to “News” on the App Store (TechCrunch)
The move boosts Twitter’s position from no. 5 in a category to no. 1, and puts the app in front of a different audience specifically interested in news.

Jay Evensen: Who starts a newspaper in 2016? This woman does (Desert News)
Sally Fowler Francom plans to launch a new local print newspaper, the Lehi Free Press—and has already found great success in selling ads.

Newsonomics: In the platform wars, how well are you armed? (Nieman Lab)
Ken Doctor believes publishers should approach platforms as an opportunity to find large, engaged audiences and build a relationship with them—then offer the users other services off-platform.