The Kentucky High School Journalism Association, established 12 years ago by KPA, has 103 member schools this year. Planning for the April 14 and 15 annual KHSJA state convention is well underway. The keynote speaker for this year’s event will be Terry A. Anderson, former Beirut AP bureau chief who was kidnapped by militants in 1985 and held hostage for six years and nine months. Anderson is now a member of the University of Kentucky faculty.

For more information on this year’s KHSJA convention, click on the link below and then click the state convention link on the left.

Click here for information at khsja.org

We live in interesting times to say the least. At times, it’s downright scary. But technology keeps marching on. It always has and probably always will. But occasionally, there’s a hiccup here and there. Alternate delivery methods for newspapers is one such example. In the 1980s and ’90s, a number of newspapers, including some here in Kentucky, developed editions that were delivered by fax. Most eventually succumbed to online versions courtesy of the Internet. But would you believe that some newspapers, including The Louisville Courier-Journal and old Louisville Times here in Kentucky, tried faxing their newspapers to subscribers’ homes back in the 1930s? 

Yes, indeed, there was a group of newspapers in the 1930s that experimented with faxing their papers over local radio stations between midnight and 6 a.m. The idea was simple — reduce distribution time and costs and make certain subscribers had the latest issue of the paper nice and dry inside their homes when folks got up in the morning. Unfortunately, no one seemed to make any money off this venture, World War II came along and diverted resources and after the war, that newfangled thing called television was all the rage and faxed newspapers just kind of died. Too bad.

Click here for full story at antiqueradio.com

Carl Zimmerer, longtime editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal, has passed away at 96 after a long journalism career. Zimmerer was known as a copy editor’s copy editor and was revered for his attention to detail and accuracy.

Click here for full story at courier-journal.com

Crittenden County has had power restored and here’s a report from Chris Evans about The Crittenden Press dealing with the storm. Notice they used a former reporter who lives in Pennsylvania to post information online and to access e-mails.

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Recently, my buddy Tony Maddox retired from the Madisonville Messenger. I worked with Tony when he was at the Henderson Gleaner and I was at the McLean County News in Calhoun. Shown in the photo are former Gleaner co-workers, Ron Jenkins (retired), Teresa Revlett, Steve Austin, Gleaner publisher and Maddox.

As we say in Tennessee, we are “smack dab in the middle” of convention season. Here in the states, most press associations conduct their conventions sometime between late January and late April. In Canada, they tend to come a little later, around April and May. As convention season approaches, I tend to do a lot of research to prepare new information. Last week, in Indianapolis, I addressed the publishers of the state on my latest topic titled, “Online Journalism II: The Sequel.”
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As I’m sure most have seen on the state and national news, tiny little Grayson County, Kentucky, was probably one of the hardest hit counties from last week’s ice storm. Residents of the county were without power early a.m. Tuesday, January 27th and the office of the News-Gazette went down around 6 p.m. that evening. We had just finished sending our Wednesday edition to our printer in Elkton. Read the rest of this entry

Geoff Vanderlin, circulation manager of Sauk Valley Newspapers and the Bureau County Republican in Sterling, Ill., spoke to circulation employees from several Kentucky newspapers during the annual KPA convention on Jan. 23 in Louisville. Geoff shared his many ideas for building circulation.

“The experience was very good for me and I hope the attendees got as much out of it as I did,” Geoff said. Here is his PowerPoint presentation.

National Newspaper Association President John W. Stevenson, publisher of the Randolph Leader, Roanoke, AL, said he feared cuts in United States Postal Service budgets might do what rain, snow, sleet and dark of night had not: keep the local newspaper from being delivered. Read the rest of this entry