KPA advertising sets new record

Organization makes monthly mark in more ways than one

August typically isn’t that large of an advertising month. Going back over the last 23 years, only August of 2002 was above $400,000 in placement. In fact, August ranked only above January in total number of times we’d hit $400,000. Then there were Mays and Octobers when $400,000 was rather easy.

But August, 2006, now ranks as the highest advertising month in KPS history. The staff sold more than $910,000 (and if all the newspapers ran all the ads, we’ll finish the month with that amount).

The $910,000 broke last year’s October mark of $868,000 (record number one). And the $627,000 placed just in Kentucky newspapers was $80,000 above the previous high for placements in Kentucky newspapers (record number two).

Add to that our ARK 2x2 network with $30,350 and you have yet a third record.

Now consider that in all of 1983, KPS placed a total of $983,000 and you see how far the ad service has come.

The ad staff got tired of hearing me say, “Are we there yet, are we there yet?” and they were somewhat relieved when we finally reached it, with a few days remaining in the month.

Of course, hitting $900,000 gave me an opening to say, “Let’s do a million this month!” Just gotta keep them on their toes.

So to Teresa and Rachel and Holly and Stephanie and Ashlee and Bonnie and Buffy and Sue and David Spencer. Well, I have to include David Greer and John Whitlock because they had to put up with my banter back and forth with the ad staff. So to the whole staff, “Thanks!” It was a great birthday present and a great way to celebrate the 23rd anniversary with KPS.

And I’m certain all of our Kentucky Press Association newspapers join me in congratulating you and thanking you.

(P.S. to the ad staff -- So now let’s shoot for that first million dollar month!)

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Two Kentucky papers are exceptions to rule

A quick check around the country seems to verify that two Kentucky newspapers are the exceptions rather than the rule. At a time when there might be more dailies switching to weekly publication, the Appalachian News Express in Pikeville and the Georgetown News-Graphic have done just the opposite.

Instead of publishing three times per week, as both had for several years, the two Lancaster Newspapers publications have gone daily. That’s unheard of these days.

When the news came about Georgetown’s move to daily I did a quick check of my colleagues around the country and found only one other newspaper going from weekly to daily. And that won’t happen until later this month.

Most of the press associations reported just the opposite. Dailies have become weeklies or are considering such a change in publication frequency. For definition purposes, most of us define a weekly as being published up to three times per week, a daily as being published four or more times.

The move by the Appalachian News Express isn’t a recent idea. For my 23 years here, that’s been mentioned more than once a year. LaJuene Waggoner and Barbara Justice often talked about it at Kentucky Weekly Newspaper Association conferences. And both thought it would be “later this year” that the ANY went daily. Didn’t happen.

Georgetown’s switch might be a little more surprising although the market in and around Scott County has certainly changed. No more is Scott County the sleepy little community where farmers gather downtown on Saturdays or every person you see on the street you can call them by their first name. I know first-hand how the Georgetown area has grown.

I guess for the past 20 years at least, we’ve always said, “Twenty-four,” when asked how many dailies there are in Kentucky. Not since the Paris Daily Enterprise went from daily to weekly to defunct, or the Columbia Statesman stopped daily publication has the number of daily newspapers changed in the Bluegrass. It seems to have always been 24.

I’ve told you before, I’ll tell you many times in the future, I’ve always been proud of our Kentucky newspapers. And this is just another reason. Congrats, Marty and Mike and staffs.

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Web site category added to annual contest

Not a lot of changes in the Excellence in Kentucky Newspapers - 2006 competition, save for the addition of one new category -- Best Newspaper Web Site.

Editors should have received the mailed packet of information on the contest. And it’s also available on the web -- www.kypress.com/excellence2006.

The contest period is for all issues published between Oct. 1, 2005, and Sept. 30, 2006. But it takes a while to gather all the issues and all the potential entries so don’t wait until after Sept. 30 to start that sorting. Go through past issues now and pull the things you want to enter.

For the web site category, you’ll only have to submit your URL (web site address) and we’ll pass that along to the judges who will review all the web sites entered, a minimum of three times. Content, ease of navigation, design/visual, timeliness and news links will be the criteria for the judging.

This being the first time we’ve offered this category, there could be room for improvement on the judging criteria or there could be room for more categories in the future. But we wanted to get something included this year and keeping it simple was the best way to go for now.

The entry deadline is Oct 16. We usually make it a Friday but that would have been Friday, the 13th. I’m a little superstitious so extending the deadline was obvious.

David Thompson is the executive director of the Kentucky Press Association.

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