Welcome to Tennessee Press Association Online

*Access to publishers only.

Directory information for TPA member newspapers may be found under "Newspapers Online" or by calling to order your copy of the 2008 Tennessee Newspaper Directory today. ($40 cover price waived for members and clients.)

See how Tennessee newspapers announced election results click here to view more front pages

________________________________________________________

Safety vests required Nov. 24
Effective Nov. 24, a federal regulation will require media representatives to wear high-visibility safety vests when working on stories on federal highways. The proper garment is an ANSI Class II-2004-107 safety vest.

Vests can be purchased from safety apparel suppliers. The National Newspaper Association also has vests available. Visit www.nna.org for details.
________________________________________________________

Photo-identification press cards for 2009
TPA members may begin ordering the photo-identification style press cards for 2009. The cards have been offered to members since 2006.

Beat the hectic, end-of-year rush by placing your order early. If you have previously ordered a card for a staff member, the photo and electronic signature will be on file. All you need to do is complete the order form and submit it to TPA. The cards are similar to a driver’s license and are available for only $5 per card. Order form

TPA will send the traditional paper press cards to member newspapers in mid-December.

________________________________________________________

'09 Contests deadlines set
TPA has set the deadlines for the annual UT-TPA State Press Contests and the Ideas Contest for advertising and circulation. Please mark these dates on your calendar and begin thinking about material your newspaper wants to submit for each.

Rules brochures and entry materials for both contests will be available by the second week of December. Note that the deadlines are a few weeks earlier than usual.

Ideas Contest deadline:
Friday, January 16, 2009

UT-TPA State Press Contests deadline:
Friday, January 30, 2009

________________________________________________________

Nominations for Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame due Dec. 12
The Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame honors those who have made an outstanding contribution to Tennessee newspaper journalism or who have made an extraordinary contribution to their communities and region, or the state, through newspaper journalism.

Nominations are being accepted through December 12, 2008, to be considered for induction in 2009. Forty-eight honorees have been inducted since the Hall of Fame was established in 1966 as a joint project of TPA and the University of Tennessee. All inductions are made posthumously.

The Hall of Fame is physically located in the Communications Building at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Information about the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame, biographical sketches of the honorees and nomination information can be found at www.tnpress.com/halloffame.html.

All nominees must be deceased five or more years prior to the nomination. A selection committee of five TPA past presidents will review nominations and announce whether an induction ceremony will be held in 2009.

________________________________________________________

Vass is new director of District Three
A vacancy on the TPA Board of Directors was created when Tom Overton resigned the position at the beginning of October. Overton left the state to take a position in Hot Springs, Ark.

TPA President Tom Griscom has appointed Chris Vass, Sunday editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, to fill the remainder of the term, which expires at the conclusion of the 2009 Summer Convention.

Vass is also the chairman of the 2009 TPA Summer Convention, which will be held June 18-19 in Chattanooga.

The counties covered by District Three are: Bledsoe, Bradley, Hamilton, Marion, McMinn, Meigs, Monroe, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie.

For more information about the Board of Directors or TPA districts, please visit,www.tnpress.com/about_TPA.html or contact the TPA office at (865) 584-5761.

________________________________________________________

Training videos available 24/7 to TPA members
Online training was introduced to TPA members two years ago. The video series has new topics in Adobe Flash animation added this month. Each video is around 10 minutes in length, ranges from 15 to 40 megabytes in size and is designed to be downloaded to the user's computer. Videos are currently available on the topics of Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash, InDesign, OS X, Photoshop, and Quark XPress 7.0. Members can access these files in the training area of www.tnpress.com. A username and password is required. Contact TPA at (865) 584-5761 if you need this information.

________________________________________________________

Students search for newspaper job opportunities
TPA represented the newspaper industry of Tennessee at the UT Communications Job and Internship Fair on Oct. 22. Greg Sherrill and Robyn Gentile spoke with many students who are seeking jobs and internships with newspapers. Some have already graduated and others will graduate in December, the spring or just need an internship for the summer. If you have an opening, please post the information at www.tnpress.com.

Participants were given information on how to view jobs posted to the site and how to add their resume for publishers and human resource directors to review. The same information will be sent to other collegiate journalism programs in Tennessee.

If you need assistance with the employment area of the Web site, please contact Robyn Gentile at (865) 584-5761, ext. 105 or via e-mail.

________________________________________________________

President Griscom shares poll results on access

Dear TPA Members:

When you honored me as your president, one of the commitments I made was to remind the people of Tennessee why a free press is important.

As we wrestle with a number of readership and other issues, it is incumbent on us as members of the Tennessee Press Association to raise our voices in support of the role of a free press in a free society.

The watchdog for the public to have access to the inner workings of government at all levels whether through documents or meetings falls on the shoulders of the members of the Tennessee Press Association. For the past two years our members have worked hard to protect, preserve and in some instances enhance the existing Open Records law in Tennessee. We also have diligently withheld efforts to weaken the Open Meetings law.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press commissioned a poll in September that gauged the opinions of Tennesseans on having access to the actions of government. The three questions and the results are available to you as TPA members on our website. I hope you will check out the numbers and find opportunities to share the results with your readers.

If we are going to protect, preserve and enhance the public’s access to government, the members of the Tennessee Press Association hopefully will share with all Tennesseans the poll numbers and an editorial voice to keep the doors of government at all levels open to the public.

Sincerely,

Tom Griscom
TPA President

________________________________________________________

Five tabloids convert to broadsheet

Five Gannett Tennessee newspapers converted from tabloid format to an 11-inch wide broadsheet at the beginning of October. They are The Ashland City Times, The Dickson Herald, The Fairview Observer, The News-Examiner (Gallatin), and Robertson County Times (Springfield).

Of the five newspapers, only The Fairview Observer had always been in tabloid format. The others converted from broadsheet to tab in 2006.

Regarding the conversion to broadsheet, Observer editor Nancy Phillips Stephens said, "We've had a lot of positive feedback."

Stephens, who has been with the Observer for 17 years, added that the amount of positive feedback surprised even her. She said she likes the "crisp, clean feel" of the new design.

________________________________________________________

Leaf-Chronicle printing facility to close
The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, announced that its printing operation will move to the facilities of its sister paper, The Tennessean, Nashville, effective Dec. 1. News, advertising, circulation administration and operations will remain at the newspaper’s headquarters in downtown Clarksville according to a story in The Leaf-Chronicle (Oct. 8).

Other Gannett newspapers printed by the Clarksville facility will also move to the Nashville facility. Those affected newspapers include The Ashland City Times, The Stewart-Houston Times (Dover), The Fairview Observer, The Dickson Herald and the Robertson County Times (Springfield).

The Leaf-Chronicle story says the closing of its printing operations will eliminate 35 full-time jobs while creating four new jobs in Clarksville and nine at the Nashville facility.

________________________________________________________

Institute of Newspaper Technology a success

Institute of Newspaper Technology (INT) attendees receive a welcome and orientation from Kevin Slimp, INT director, Oct. 9.

More than 50 people were in Knoxville October 9-11 for the Institute of Newspaper Technology. Attendees learned from leading industry trainers on a variety of software applications for newspaper pagination and Web design. Kevin Slimp, TPS director of technology, directs the Institute.

Classes were held at the College of Communication and Information at the University of Tennessee. This was the 11th session of the Institute, which has trained more than 700 people since its inception in 1997.
________________________________________________________

Dates set for major '09 TPA meetings
Grab your calendars, blackberries or keyboards to enter these important TPA events to your 2009 calendar.

The Winter Convention will be held February 4-6 at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Nashville. Advertising and circulation personnel should plan for the 2009 Advertising/Circulation Conference, which will be held in Franklin. And, members can look forward to the Summer Convention, June 17-19, at the Sheraton Read House hotel in downtown Chattanooga.

TPA committees are working on the agendas for these meetings. Information will be available approximately 60 days before each event and posted at tnpress.com and published in The Tennessee Press.

Deadlines are not firm for the UT-TPA State Press Contests and Advertising/Circulation Ideas Contests; however, members should expect January deadlines for both contests.

________________________________________________________

Public records request forms now available
The Tennessee Comptroller's Office announced the availability of forms to assist citizens and records custodians with the public records request process on August 12. Three forms were developed by the Comptroller’s Office of Open Records Counsel as required by Public Chapter 1179, Acts of 2008.

The Inspection/Duplication of Records Request Form is for use by citizens requesting copies of public records. The Tennessee Public Records Act prohibits governmental entities from requiring a Tennessee citizen to submit a written request when exercising the right of inspection. However, the Act does require a request to be sufficiently detailed to enable the records custodian to identify the specific records to be located or copied. The Inspection/Duplication of Records Request Form will assist citizens in making sufficiently detailed requests. The forms, along with instructions on how and when they are to be used, can be found on the Comptroller of the Treasury’s website at: www.comptroller.state.tn.us/openrecords/forms.htm.

________________________________________________________

TPA Summer Convention Slideshow

________________________________________________________
Save these dates

Feb. 4-6, 2009, TPA Winter Convention, Nashville

details on these events and other calendar items

________________________________________________________

2009
Press credentials
  TPA now offers members a more
   professional press card.
   View details and order form

__________________________________________

TPA is a primary media sponsor of the Governor's Books from Birth Foundation Imagination Library project.