WWW.ANANEWS.COM OCTOBER 2008

The public now has unprec-edented access to Child Protective Services records involving child fatalities or serious injuries under a package of reforms approved in June by the Arizona Legislature.

The measures, which took ef-fect on September 26, were spon-sored by Reps. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, and Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, and were supported by the Arizona Newspapers Association and Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.

The laws are designed to open CPS actions to public scrutiny by making it easier for the press and public to inspect records concern-ing cases of severe child abuse. The keystone measure allows CPS to release records regarding cases of child abuse and neglect that result in fatalities or near-fatalities upon request. The old law re-quired the press and public to petition a superior court judge to order disclosure of these records – a costly process that often took months.

The measure clarifi es that CPS records are public records subject to the Arizona Public Records Law and that CPS has a duty to provide CPS records “promptly” upon request. The new law also requires disclosure of the records unless CPS or prosecutors demon-strate that disclosure “would cause a specifi c, material harm to a criminal investigation.” The law preserves existing protections for privacy and confi dentiality man-dated by federal regulations.

A second new law makes

clear that disciplinary records of all public employees are pub-lic records subject to inspection under the Arizona Public Records Law. Paton and Adams proposed the change after CPS refused to disclose disciplinary records of a CPS employee accused of wrong-doing. The measure was approved with the support of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers.

A third change adopts the rec-ommendations of a pilot program that required open court proceed-ings in many cases involving children. The new law requires that court proceedings regarding dependent children, permanent guardianships and termination of parental rights be open to the pub-lic, with signifi cant protections for privacy on a case-by-case basis.

The changes arose from leg-islative hearings held in late 2007 by Paton and Adams concerning the deaths of Brandon Williams and Tyler and Ariana Payne, three

Tucson children who died after signifi cant contact with CPS. Paton and Adams were unable to review some of the records in the cases until The Arizona Republic and Arizona Daily Star sued and obtained a ruling ordering CPS to disclose the records.

Paton said the increased open-ness would lead to additional reforms for the agency.

“Altogether, what we tried to do was leverage the public’s right to know in order to reform a system that was fundamentally broken,” Paton said. “We had no idea what was wrong with CPS until we sued to get those records opened up. When we were able to get them, those records told the story of what was wrong with the agency.”

David Bodney and Chris Moeser of Steptoe & Johnson LLP worked on passage of the CPS legislative package for Phoenix Newspapers, Inc., which publishes The Arizona Republic.

Legislature improves public access to CPS recordsBy David J. Bodneyand Chris Moeser

Adams and Paton holding up their 2008 ANA FOI awards for their legislative breakthrough in opening CPS records. (Photo: Alec Pearce/White Mountain Independent)

October 2008 ■ ANAgramsPage 2

Executive director’s messageThere was a sigh of relief from the

ANA staff as we have once again sur-vived another fall meeting, and having done so with some very high reviews from attendees! The new ASU Cronkite School facility proved to be a fine venue for our membership. Tours of the facility were met with high praise for the design and programs contained therein. For those of you who could not attend the 2008-2009 ANA annual meeting, I am happy to share a synopsis of the issues discussed. After our August board retreat in Payson, the ANA board agreed to some new initiatives for our membership, including a one-time “rebate or dis-count” for members on their 2009 ANA Membership dues. The reduction will be reflected in the upcoming dues invoices, which will be mailed in late December. Our new ANA president, Dick Larson, felt that this “sends a message to mem-bership that we understand the financial struggles that our membership is experi-encing.” ANA had two of its best years in 2006 and 2007 and the board felt that now was an opportune time to share some of our profits with our member newspa-pers.

Recently, Network Advertising Man-ager Sharon Schwartz has been focusing on putting together a cohesive Online Marketing program. Notice was recently sent out to member newspapers with pro-gram details. The most important starter here is that newspaper Web sites need to be using the three standard IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) sizes outlined. For more details about this program, contact Sharon.

Our Awards committee is also looking at implementing an online entry process for our Advertising Contest and BNC. We are also looking at partnering with the AAF/Ad Club, The Associated Press and the Arizona Press Club in order to make entering contests easier for our newspa-pers.

The Education Committee will look

at a more convenient and less expensive way to get training to our membership through the use of webinars. We will most likely continue with one convention a year, held in the fall with our Advertising Awards reception in the spring.

In these challenging economic times, your association is also looking at ways to continue to offer members the same level of services without hurting our finances. We have sadly decided to cut back the NIE State Coordinator position. Pat Oso will continue to produce monthly NIE pages and will still be available to do Teacher Workshops for your newspa-pers on an individual contract basis. We have also decided to reduce the number of months that we print our monthly newsletter, ANAgrams. We will print ANAgrams only four months during the year, and provide it online-only during the other months.

On the upcoming legislative front, John Fearing expounded on the challeng-es we know are coming. We have been told by the League of Cities that they will be introducing a bill to do away with government public notices in newspapers and replace them on municipal Web sites. The ANA is working on strategies to fight this bill. We have contracted with Belden Associates to update the public survey on the use of public notice, which we had initially done in 2001. Watch for future Legislative Alerts with more information on what we need you to be doing to help on this issue.

A thank you gift was presented to out-going ANA President, John Wolfe, with our sincere thanks being expressed for his eight years of service to the association. John is embarking on the Executive MBA program at ASU and we wish him much luck in the future. We welcome new ANA board members: Jody VandenHuevel, VP of Sales and Business Development, East Valley Tribune; Nicole Carroll, Execu-tive Editor, Arizona Republic and John Naughton, Publisher, Payson Roundup.

“In these challenging economic

times, your association is

looking at ways to

continue to offer members the same level of services

without hurting our finances.”

Paula CaseyExecutive Director

ANAgrams ■ October 2008 Page 3

Send ANA your updated information by Nov. 10Update your newspaper in-

formation on the Web at http://members.ananews.com. If you cannot log in or have forgotten your password, contact Perri Collins at 602.261.7655 ext. 110 or p.collins@ananews.com.

In addition, please remem-ber to send ANA proof of circu-

NOV. 12, 2008 Arizona Daily Star building 4850 S. Park Ave. Tucson, AZ 85714

NOV. 13, 2008 Best Western CentralPhoenix Inn 1100 N. Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85004

WE NEED YOUR HELP! The Kentucky Press Association has graciously judged the ANA Better Newspapers Contest and now it is our turn to return the favor. We need newsroom judges, feature writers, sports editors and more! Lunch will be provided.

Judging will take place 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at:

ANA CALL FOR JUDGES

lation (audit, statement of own-ership, etc.) and two copies of your 2009 (or most recent) rate cards in order for us to update our 2009 directory and provide the most accurate information possible to potential advertisers. Circulation fi gures are used for advertising rate cards, directory

information and contest classifi -cation purposes. If ANA does not receive updated information for your newspaper, we use the cir-culation fi gures from last year.

THE DEADLINE FOR TO UPDATE YOUR INFORMA-TION IS NOV. 10, 2008. NO EXCEPTIONS.

The semi-annual report ex-pected from the Audit Bureau of Circulations next week will show more drops in paid circulation -- but at the least the industry can console itself with the latest online numbers.

The number of unique visitors to newspaper Web sites hit another record high in Q3, up 15.7% to 68.3 million compared to the same period a year ago.

The Newspaper Association of American reported the custom data provided by Nielsen Online (owned by the same parent com-pany as E&P).

Total uniques in the month of August spiked 17% to 69.3 mil-lion, thanks partly to the Olym-pics and the intense interest in the presidential campaign. While

the fi nan-cial crisis loomed large in September, the month was third in terms of unique visitors for Q3 with 67.7 mil-lion. In July it was 67.9 million.

Page views for Q3 soared 25% to 3.5 bil-lion compared to the same period a year ago.

Time spent also marched north. The average time spent per user during the quarter was 45 minutes and 49 seconds, up from 41 minutes and 54 sections in Q3 of 2007.

This September the average time spent per person was 49 minutes and 20 seconds compared with 43 minutes and 44 seconds. Page views in September were

By Jennifer SabaEditor and Publisher

Online visitors up 15.7%

the highest during the quarter to 3.6 billion.

The NAA started tracking news-paper Web site data in 2004. Total unique visitors grew 68.6% in Q3 compared to the same quarter in 2004.

October 2008 ■ ANAgramsPage 4

Blurring the lines between print and online, AdBuilder.com is making it easier to increase sales with complete print and Web ad packages. Now offering Flash banner ads that your staff can easily edit—no experience needed.

800.245.9278, ext. 5324 • sales_builder@multiad.com

It’s not print vs. Web anymore

Just when Americans find themselves drawn to news reports from a contentious presidential election and deflating economic challenges, new research from the National Newspaper Associa-tion (NNA) again demonstrates that Main Street America relies upon community newspapers to inform and empower citizens from coast to coast. In a follow-up to its landmark 2005 research and 2007 update, NNA finds that 86 per cent of adults read a local community newspaper each week, which compares with 83% in 2007 and 81% in 2005. The survey was con-ducted this past summer, before the presidential race heated up and the stock market took a dive.

“This is in stark contrast to news reports trumpeting the decline, if not demise, of newspa-pers,” says John Stevenson, presi-dent of NNA and publisher of the Randolph Leader in Roanoke, AL. “We learned three years ago that we had a different story to tell, and with this second update we again prove that our initial findings hold up.”

According to the 2008 NNA survey, conducted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s (RJI) Center for Advanced Social Research at the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri:

• 86 percent of adults over the age of 18 read a newspaper every week.

• 75 percent of those readers read most or all of their paper.

• On average, readers spend 45 minutes reading an issue of their paper.

• More than one-third of read-ers keep their paper for more than six days, enabling them to revisit a story or advertisement at their leisure.

“Readers and advertisers have

not abandoned community news-papers that serve their communi-ties well, that are involved in their communities,” Stevenson said.

“In towns and cities across the country, vibrant local newspapers continue to help strengthen their communities, and those communi-ties in turn strengthen and sup-port their local news source. They grow, together.”

“Just about all of the research and news reports on the “strug-gling” newspaper industry have been based on what’s happening at the top 100 major metropolitan newspapers, maybe the top 250,” said Brian Steffens, NNA execu-tive director. “That doesn’t tell

the story of the remaining 1,200 daily newspapers or 8,000 com-munity weekly papers in America. Many of those troubled papers started as community papers and then enjoyed decades of growth as they expanded into adjacent com-munities and surrounding suburbs, becoming regional newspapers and losing that tight community focus. That worked for awhile, but that model may not be as success-ful going forward. But it doesn’t seem right to paint the rest of our industry with that brush.”

To capture a snapshot of read-ership along Main Street America, NNA surveyed adults in markets

86 percent of adults read community newspapers

continued on page 5

ANAgrams ■ October 2008 Page 5

continued from page 4

served by newspapers of less than 25,000 circulation to examine the relationship between Main Street America and newspapers. The 2007 survey included population centers less than 50,000; the 2005 survey targeted population centers less than 100,000.

According to the 2008 NNA survey, local community news-papers are the primary source of information for both news and ad-vertising in local communities—by a 5-1 margin over the next most popular media.

To reinforce the concept that the public, or newspapers on the public’s behalf, should hold gov-ernment accountable, 81 percent of readers said that government should be required to publish public notices in newspapers. This compares to 79 percent in 2007 and 71 percent in 2005.

“This is an excellent report card on the value of community newspapers,” says Stevenson.

“Despite a sizable growth in Internet and broadband access in smaller communities, these results indicate tremendous community support for their community news-papers,” Stevenson said. “The value proposition to readers and advertisers remains strong.”

NNA surveyGoddard OKs online public meetings

Attorney General Terry Goddard has given his blessing to public bod-ies conducting at least some of their meetings in cyberspace.

In a formal opinion, Goddard said members of the Camp Verde Uni-fied School District board can engage in discussions and deliberations on the Internet. Goddard said this would not violate the state’s Open Meetings Law.

But Goddard cautioned that the public must have access to the meet-ing. That means not only ensuring that people can log in to watch but also that there are alternatives for people who don’t own computers.

Freireich inspires NY man to start new paper

Inspired by Elliott Freireich’s experience with the West Valley View, Jim Kevlin, editor and publisher of The Freeman’s Journal, in Cooperstown, N.Y., launched Hometown Oneonta, a free-distribution, full-service newspaper in the city of 14,000 people, on Sept. 19.

Kevlin said the spark for the undertaking was a conversation he and Freireich had one evening in the hospitality suite during a recent conference of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors.Elliott Freireich

Prescott hires circulation managerBrett Weaver, who has worked nearly two de-

cades in newspaper circulation, recently joined Prescott Newspapers Inc. as circulation director.

Weaver, 39, replaces John Harrell, who retired Oct. 3 after heading the circulation department for PNI for nearly 18 years.

“We welcome Brett to the PNI family and believe he brings a wealth of experience to The Daily Cou-rier and its publications,” Kit Atwell, PNI publisher and chief executive officer, said in a prepared state-ment.Brett Weaver

Leo Della Betta

Leo Della Betta was an atypical curmudgeon.A newsroom fixture at the Arizona Daily Star for 40 years, Della Betta was as well

known for the cookies and muffins he baked for fellow staffers as he was for his exple-tive-laden outbursts when peeved by some readers’ phone calls.

Della Betta’s eccentric reputation elevated to legendary in the early 1970s after he was captured on film streaking through the newsroom clad in nothing more than sneakers.

As word spread through the newsroom Wednesday of Della Betta’s death, Star staffers traded stories of the cantankerous old-school newsman.

Della Betta died Tuesday. He’d been in failing health for several years, surviving sev-eral strokes before he succumbing to congestive heart failure. He was 81.

Log on to www.azstarnet.com for more great stories about the life of Della Betta.

Longtime Arizona Star newsman Della Betta, dead at 81

October 2008 ■ ANAgramsPage 6

For months, several top newspa-pers and chains have voice concerns about Associated Press rates and services, so

going so far as giving two-year notice that may pull out of the news co-op-erative altogether. AP has continued a dialogue with these papers, and late this afternoon, with the U.S. economy sink-ing, it announced that it “will reduce U.S. newspaper member assessments by another $9 million next year and im-mediately begin a re-examination of the AP membership structure.”

According to AP’s press release:By the middle of 2009, AP will

complete a review of its pricing and governance structure, re-examining all current policies and rules, such as the two-year notice now required for leav-ing the news cooperative, and consider-ing other potential changes, including the creation of different classes of membership and services.

In the meantime, the AP Board of Directors voted at its quarterly meet-ing to provide all member newspapers complete access to all AP text content, at no extra cost. In addition, it voted to approve a moratorium on the rate increases that a minority of newspapers were expected to see in 2009 under the current AP pricing structure.

AP estimates these steps will save newspapers another $9 million, on top of the nearly $21 million in savings previously announced in rate assess-ment reductions. In addition, AP will study the potential for rate adjustments for AP Broadcast members as well.

“Our industry is in the midst of an unprecedented confluence of fast-mov-ing and extraordinary events. Challeng-es to newspapers and to the economy as a whole keep changing the equation

for AP and its members,” said William Dean Singleton, chairman of the AP Board of Directors and vice chairman and CEO of MediaNews Group, Inc. “It is time to consider fundamental change to address members’ rapidly changing needs and to assure that AP remains the world’s leading news organization.”

“We fully understand the pain and the challenges of our members, and we have worked to address these con-cerns,” said Tom Curley, president and CEO of AP. “For two years, we held rates flat, with no increases...Because of the downturn in the global economy, we are at a point where we must now examine more than just what content costs – but also how AP deals with all of its members and customers.”

This year, AP has been rolling out to members a new pricing and services packaging plan, called Member Choice. Under Member Choice, newspapers were eligible to receive nearly $14 million in assessment reductions. In addition, they would get up to another 5 percent – up to total of $7.5 million - in reductions by enlisting in the AP’s Content Enrichment program. About 10 percent of AP newspaper members saw an increase in rates under this plan, although most of them were part of groups getting overall rate reductions. Those increases will now be put on hold until AP completes the review of its structure.

All members will now receive AP Complete, with full access to all of AP’s English language text content, including analysis and enterprise.

AP will immediately launch the study of the cooperative structure and of service options, with plans to report back to the Board of Directors by AP’s annual meeting in April of 2009 with suggestions on how it might be reorga-nized.

AP backs further rate reductions

UPDATEThe Arizona News-

papers Association has made significant prog-ress in dealing with the Arizona Interscholastic Association regarding the photo credentialing issue.

Randy Lovely, Execu-tive Editor at the Ari-zona Republic, was able to get the AIA to agree to have the Gannett and Lee in-house attorneys rewrite the credential document. This revised document was recently transmitted to the AIA.

The response was that the AIA has tem-porarily suspended the enforcement of the current policy for two weeks (with the option to extend the suspen-sion) while we continue to work out the language for a new credential-ing document. It is our hope that this will all be in place before football playoffs begin.

For more information about the AIA dispute, contact ANA Executive Director Paula Casey at (602) 261-7655 ext. 102 or p.casey@ananews.com.

“We fully understand the pain and the challenges of our members...”

Tom Curley

Kevin Slimp

Institute ofNewspaper Technologykevin@kevinslimp.com

I can’t remember a time when so many

exciting upgrades and products were released at once. After speaking to a room � lled with newspaper owners and publish-ers at a national convention in St. Paul, Minnesota this week, I was a little overwhelmed by the number of folks ready to make wholesale changes and upgrades in their operations.

I addressed the crowd in St. Paul on two topics: “What Newspapers Need to Know about Trends in Converging Media” and “What’s New and Coming in Newspaper Technol-ogy.” While all this information is fresh, let me share some of the software and hardware products I recommended:

CamerasSo many new cameras to

consider. A few noteworthy:- Nikon D90. With a street price of $1,299 (US), this camera packs a lot of punch. Boasting

a resolution of 12.9 megapixels and 4.5 frames per second (fps) speed and the ability to shoot high quality video (up to 1280 x 720 pixels) and you’ve got a game changer. One camera for both still photos and video.- Canon 50D. Canon users are going to love this. Priced at $1,299, this camera doesn’t boast the high quality video of the Nikon, but consider the follow-ing: 6.3 fps and a resolution of 15.1 megapixels. Sure, that’s not the speed of a $5,000 camera, but for the price it is incredible.- Canon Rebel XS (1000D). At a price of $689, this camera packs a lot of punch at an af-fordable price.

ScannersScanners are only made to work well for two years. After that, you can clean the glass all you want and still get noisy images. So it’s important to replace your scanners every two years. Here are two good ones:- Epson V200. For $79, you’ll see marked improvement in scans over your existing scanner.

- Epson V500. While the V200 o� ers excellent results, spend a few dollars more - well, $100 more - and get this higher reso-lution version.

External Backup Drive- Lacie Bigger Disk Extreme. Who would have believed it a few years ago? A two terabyte (that’s 2,000 megabytes) triple interface (USB, Firewire 400, Firewire 800) drive for $449.Software

- Quark 8.0. Man, Quark got it right this time. Finally sti� com-

petition for InDesign.- Adobe Creative Suite 4.0. I’ve been using CS4 for sev-eral months and can � nally tell folks how great it is. Upgrades from $499 allow users to get new versions of all their favorite programs like Photoshop, InDe-sign, Acrobat Pro, Dreamweav-er, Flash and lots more. You’ll be tempted to spend some of your savings - upgrades for Creative Suite owners start at $1199 - for the Master Suite. Finally, it’s af-fordable to own all the Adobe products you’ve wished for over the years.- Acrobat Pro 9. Speaking of Ac-robat, upgrade to this version. Take my word for it. I’ve never led you down the wrong path before.

Font Management- Extensis Universal Type Server Lite. Finally, a network based font management system that’s a� ordable for the small news-paper.

In addition to hardware and software, those of us at the convention had honest discus-sions concerning the future of our business. Topics includ-ing Web site vendors, edito-rial work� ow systems and the future of digital printing were tackled head on.

In tough economic times, it’s fortunate that so many prod-ucts are being released at prices much lower than what we were

Here are a few new products to consider for your paper

Where’s Kevin?October 9-11: Knoxville, Tennessee

October 23: Alexandria, Louisiana

October 29: Columbus, Ohio

November 4: Gallatin, Tennessee

November 9: Brookings, SD

November 12-13: Phoenix, Arizona

Want to bring Kevin to your offi ce or training event? It’s easy. Email him at:

spending a few years ago. One publisher I spoke to summed it up well when he spoke of his surprise at the signi� cant increase in production after upgrading his newspapers. “I was amazed,” he told me, “with how much more we are able to get done since upgrading our computers and software.”

Another publisher from Minnesota told me, “Since we upgraded our systems and soft-ware earlier this year, almost all of our production problems have disappeared.”

In my next column we’ll take a closer look at some of the latest upgrades to software that most newspaper use.

New products by Nikon and Canon offer newspapers lots of choices in high resolution digital cameras. Some even offer high resolution video.

Adobe announced CS4 in September with new versions of Photoshop, In-Design, Flash, Illustrator and other products used by newspapers.

kevin@kevinslimp.com

October 2008 ■ ANAgramsPage 8

PresideNtDick Larson, Western News&Info, Inc. One-Year Dir./Daily

First Vice PresideNtTeri Hayt, Arizona Daily StarTwo-Year Dir./At-large

secoNd Vice PresideNtGinger Lamb, Arizona Capitol Times Two-Year Dir./Non-Daily

third Vice PresideNtDon Rowley, Arizona Daily Sun Two-Year Dir./Daily

secretAry/treAsurerRick Schneider, Eastern Arizona Courier One-Year Dir./Non-Daily

directorsTom Arviso, Navajo Times Two-Year Director/Non-Daily

Nicole Carroll, The Arizona Republic Two-Year Director/Daily

Elvira Espinoza, La Voz Two-Year Dir./At-large

John Naughton, Payson Roundup One-Year Dir./Non-Daily

Jody VandenHeuvel, East Valley Tribune One-Year Dir./Daily

Pam Mox, Green Valley News and Sun Past President

2008-2009 ANA/Ad Services Board of Directors

executiVe directorPaula Casey .............. Ext. 102 p.casey@ananews.com

dePuty executiVe dir. oF GoVerNmeNt AFFAirsJohn F. Fearing ...................... j.fearing@ananews.com

commuNicAtioNs mGr.Perri Collins .............. Ext. 110 p.collins@ananews.com

AccouNtiNG AssistANtLiisa Straub ............... Ext. 105 l.straub@ananews.com

mediA BuyerCindy Meaux ............ Ext. 112 c.meaux@ananews.com

Network Ad mGr.Sharon Schwartz ....... Ext. 108 s.schwartz@ananews.com

Network sAles reP.Don Ullmann ............ Ext. 111 d.ullmann@ananews.com

Ad serVices AssistANtKay Wilmoth ............. Ext. 103 k.wilmoth@ananews.com

ArizoNA stAte Nie coordiNAtorPat Oso ..................... Ext. 109 beartracks@cox.net

recePtioN/teArsheetsLorraine Bergquist ........ Ext. 0 l.bergquist@ananews.com

Contact ANA Staff

ANAgrams is an official publication of the

ARIzONA NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION1001 N. CENTRAL AVE., SUITE 670

PHOENIx, Az 85004

ANACalendar

November 8,2008

• ArizonaPressClubfallworkshop,Flagstaff

November 10, 2008

• ANAdirectoryupdatesdeadline

November 19-21, 2008

• SNAClassifiedAdver-tisingConference,LasVegas

November 21, 2008

• ASU’sCronkiteLuncheon

December12-13,2008

• SpecialtrainingworkshopwithKevinSlimp

January15,2009

• ANALegislativeLuncheon

April3-5,2009

• SPJRegion11Conference,Phoenix

stAy iN touch with ANA

oN the weB!

Members-only site:http://members.ananews.com

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It’s a sad world when newspapers promote other people’s products and services to their readers and not their own. The Arizona Newspapers Association strives to give newspapers the training and tools they want and need to have an extensive community presence, but it often seems that newspapers are not taking full advantage of that.

For example, as a way to compete with CraigsList, ANA developed www.ClassifiedArizona.com. We help to provide prescreened, statewide, quality online classified ads for read-ers. How many of you are promoting the ClassifiedArizona aggregation program? What if I told you that two guys in Phoenix have developed a similar product that has grown ex-

ponentially in the past 10 months? What if I told you those same guys used news-papers to advertise their product? Did you use your newspaper to advertise your

It’s a sad, sad, sad, sad state of affairs

Perri Collins CommunicationsManager

product?More visitors = more

revenue. The numbers don’t lie. Just last month, 75,294 classified ads were uploaded to ClassifiedArizona.com. The newspapers that use Veri-can’s online order entry sys-tem earned $58,329 and that’s not counting newspapers who have their own order entry system. The revenue that the online classifieds generated could easily be double that figure.

As we learned at the ANA fall convention this month, newspapers need to capitalize on what they provide to their communities. One of those things is trust and depend-ability. Why sort through hundreds of offensive, non-relevant ads on national Web sites when there’s a local alternative that provides more class and less trash?

If you participate in the ClassifiedArizona.com ag-gregation program, promote it! Don’t let readers forget what you do for them. News-papers need to embrace the Internet as never before. Now is not the time to sit back and watch. Now is the time to act. Promote your services online and in print. Spread the word. Take no prisoners.