MPA 2010 Fall Conference schedule

   Here are the confirmed events for the 2010 Maine Press Association Fall Conference at Point Lookout Resort and Conference Center in Northport Oct. 15-16. We will also have a workshop dealing with legal issues facilitated by an attorney from Preti-Flaherty.  Download your registration application here.

Friday, Oct. 15
  7 p.m. Bowling Tournament sponsored by MaineToday Media and Verso Paper
Donation is $20 per person for four hours of 10-pin bowling with all proceeds going toward the MPA Scholarship Fund. Teams will be picked at random. Price includes pizza and shoe rental, and a cash bar will be available. If you’ve never bowled at Point Lookout lanes, you’re in for a treat!

Saturday, Oct. 16
10:15 – 11:15 a.m. Working in a Multimedia Newsroom
   Damon Kiesow, Digital Media Fellow at the Poynter Insititute and former managing editor/online for The Telegraph of Nashua, N.H., will lead a workshop on reassessing the value of stories based on how well they can translate to multimedia. Kiesow was a Poynter-McCormick Change Leadership Fellow in 2009 and a past board member of the National Press Photographers Association and the Northern Short Course in Photojournalism.

10:15 – 11:15 a.m. Court Reporting
  Mary Ann Lynch, Director of Information for the State of Maine Court System and veteran Bangor Daily News reporter Judy Harrison will lead a workshop on court reporting. With so many high-profile cases in the news, this workshop will serve as a primer for new journalists covering court proceedings as well as a good refresher course for seasoned reporters and editors.
  Lynch is a 1984 graduate of the University of Maine School of Law and the former Vice President for Law and Governmental Affairs for Maine Yankee Atomic Plant. Harrison has won several Maine Press Association and New England News and Press Association awards for journalism excellence.

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Advertising workshop
   Michelle Lester, vice president of advertising for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram will lead a panel discussion with other sales professionals in a workshop on the challenges and rewards of media advertising. Prior to joining MaineToday Media, Lester was vice president of classified advertising at the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Penna. and also worked at Gannett Co. Inc., based in McLean, Va., the Moline (Ill.) Dispatch Publishing Co. and at the Telegraph Herald of Dubuque, Iowa.

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Think Like an Editor
  Steve and Emilie Davis are professors at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and authors of “Think Like an Editor: 50 Strategies for the Print and Digital World.” Their workshop will feature a variety of subjects such as setting priorities, helping reporters deal with breaking news, how to provide background and relevance and assessing the value of stories.
  Steve Davis is chair of the Newspaper and Online Journalism Department, teaches classes in reporting and writing for print and the Web and directs the school’s participation in the Carnegie-Knight NEWS21 program on the future of journalism. 
   Emilie Davis, the former copy desk chief of Gannett News Service, teaches introductory newspaper editing to undergraduate and graduate students. She also teaches news writing and reporting to incoming graduate students majoring in magazine-newspaper-online or public relations.

12:30 – 2 p.m. Hall of Fame Luncheon
  Join us as we induct the late Bill Clark, longtime columnist for the Guy Gannett Publishing Company; Don Levesque, recently retired publisher of the St. John Valley Times; and the late Bob DeLong, longtime news photographer for the Bangor Daily News into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame. Our guest speaker will be 2009 Journalist of the Year Seth Koenig from The Times Record.

2 p.m. Annual MPA business meeting
  
5:30 – 7 p.m. Fellowship Fund-Raising Auction
   Here’s your chance to bid on a variety of gifts, weekend getaways, souvenirs and other goodies with all proceeds going toward the MPA Fellowship Fund. Our Auction Committee chaired by Kevin Burnham has been working hard securing donations from all over the state from souvenirs to weekend getaways. Earl Brechlin has once again volunteered to be our auctioneer. Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be available. The auction will be held in the front foyer this year instead of the veranda, so we won’t be as crowded.

7 p.m. Dinner and Awards Presentation
The 2009 Better Newspaper Contest winners will be announced along with the General Excellence Awards, Journalist of the Year and the winners of the Bob Drake Young Writer’s award.

Press Herald/Telegram wins seven NEAPNEA awards

   The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram has won seven awards in the 2010 New England Associated Press News Executives Association contest.
   Newspapers from across New England competed in the annual contest in circulation-based categories.
   The Portland newspapers were in Class 1 – for newspapers whose circulation exceeds 40,000. The contest covered the year from April 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010.
   “I’m obviously thrilled for the people who won awards, but I’m also delighted for their editors and colleagues,” said Scott Wasser, the papers’ executive editor. “The editors create an environment where creative and award-winning work such as this can be produced, and their co-workers create a collaborative atmosphere that nurtures this kind of work.”
   Here are the awards won by the Press Herald/Telegram:
   • Second place for best overall website.
   • First place for best feature photo: John Ewing.
   • First place design award for best informational graphic: Michael Fisher.
   • Third place design award for best informational graphic: Jeff Woodbury.
   • Third place for best sports page: Sally Tyrrell.
   • Second place for best arts and entertainment writing: Bob Keyes. (Click the link above to read the story, “Jamie Wyeth stands alone.”)
   • First place for best headline: Brian Robitaille.
   The association will soon name winners in additional categories. The awards will be presented Sept. 10 at the association’s fall conference at the Radisson Hotel & Suites, Chelmsford, Mass.

Make your Point Lookout reservations early!

   Once again, Point Lookout Resort and Conference Center is offering discount rates for those attending the Oct. 15-16 MPA Fall Conference.
   However, the cottages will only be held at these rates until Thursday, Sept. 9.
   The discounted prices range from $129 per night for a one-bedroom unit with a queen-size bed to a three-bedroom town house with one king and two queen-size beds for $249. Two-bedroom units are priced from $155 to $169 per night.
   The units are usually rented for $155 to $309 per night during the off-season, and from $209 to $319 per night during peak periods.
   These are not “rustic cabins.” Each cottage has a spacious bathroom with walk-in shower, a dining and living area for two; a kitchenette with refrigerator, microwave, dishes, silverware and a coffee maker; heat and air conditioning, wireless Internet, phone service, cable TV and a VHS player.
   You will also have complimentary use of the fitness center, hiking trails, sports fields and playgrounds, Knights Pond and Penobscot park with private beach.
   Call toll-free at (866) 980-7539 or log onto www.visitpointlookout.com.

BDN staffers recognized by New England Associated Press

BANGOR – The Bangor Daily News earned top honors in four categories in the New England Associated Press News Executives Association contest, according to Editor-in-Chief Michael J. Dowd. The awards will be presented Sept. 10 at NEAPNEA’s fall conference at the Radisson Hotel & Suites in Chelmsford, Mass.
   Honored with first-place selections were BDN photographers Kevin Bennett and Gabor Degre, sportswriters Ernie Clark and Andrew Neff, and former Lifestyle reporter Jessica Bloch.
   Bennett took first place in the General News photography category for his memorable shot of a homeless woman in Bangor sitting on a log in a wooded area of the city. Degre won in the Portrait or Profile photo category for his image of an 88-year-old Brewer man flying a model airplane he built.
   Clark and Neff won in the Sports Feature writing category for their combined coverage of the 50th anniversary of the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers playing an NFL exhibition game in Bangor in 1959.
   Bloch won in the Arts and Entertainment writing category for her feature on artist Phil Schirmer of Blue Hill, a longtime proponent of the rarely used painting medium of egg tempera.
   The Bangor Daily News also took one second-place award and five third-place honors.
   Taking second in the Photo Story category was BDN photographer Bridget Brown, honored for her images of whales off the coast of Maine.
   Third-place awards went to reporter Emily Burnham in the Business and Consumer News writing category for her two-part series looking at the revival of downtown Bangor; reporters Abigail Curtis, Bill Trotter and Judy Harrison in the Continuing Coverage writing category for their coverage of a shooting involving lobstermen on Matinicus Island; Ernie Clark for his Sports Feature on Carlos Baeza, manager of the Camden Hills Regional High School boys basketball team; and graphics director Eric Zelz and page designer Becky Bowden in the Page 1 Design category for their work with text and images detailing an old plane wreck on a mountain in Baxter State Park.
   The Bangor Daily News website was named third-best in New England, behind first-place winner The Cape Cod Times and second-place honoree The Portland Press Herald.

Fenceviewer.com earns top NNA honor

   The National Newspaper Association has named www.fenceviewer.com, The Ellsworth American and Mount Desert Islander website, the best community newspaper website in the country.
   The occasion was the association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest. The www.fenceviewer.com site was up against websites created by small daily as well as weekly newspapers all over the nation.
   In awarding www.fenceviewer.com first place, the judge wrote: “This paper took the bold step of creating a portal, rather than just a website echoing the name and content of the paper. [The site] fenceviewer.com will take some time to get used to and to brand, but it is a friendly, attractive and very local site that has a lot going for it. You get a sense of depth and professionalism from the design and content. I liked the strong main image rotator with a more dynamic photo shape. The design is clean, has a strong color palette and is easy to use. News can be delivered on a town level, which is the best strategy for a local publishing company.”
   “We are proud and grateful,” said Alan Baker, publisher of The American and Islander. “Our business model is talented people doing their best work. That’s paying off.”
   Chris Crockett, information technology manager for The American and its sister paper, the Mount Desert Islander, said “We are pleased and excited to be recognized nationally as the best community website in the country and look forward to continuing to provide a great website for our county.”