In Omaha, Nebraska, this fall, your industry peers will lead discussions on timely topics

Aug 1, 2024

At the 137th Annual Convention & Trade Show in Washington, D.C, Katelyn Mary Skaggs of Leader Publications in Festus, Missouri, leads a flash session on selling print customers on digital. Want to talk more about digital? Join Katelyn Mary for her flash session during the NNAF’s Annual Convention and Trade Show in Omaha, September, 26-27. The session is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 26, 12:40-1:10 p.m.

Flash sessions are quick, 30-minute briefings on a topic. Five tables/tracks will be presented concurrently in a time block. Below is a featured session in each time block. Join the conversation, ask questions and pick up some new ideas! 

  • Table 1: Admin
  • Table 2: Advertising
  • Table 3: Circulation
  • Table 4: Digital
  • Table 5: Editorial

(Block 1: Thursday, Sept. 26, 12:40-1:10 p.m.)

2. ADVERTISING: Selling Total Audience – Thad Swiderski, president, eType Services, Austin, Texas

Readers have moved to digital formats and newspapers need to be able to sell advertising for digital platforms. Newspaper sales representatives are accustomed to selling audience and penetration. These representatives need to translate those skills to the digital world. The value of digital is the growth of audience it provides. More people are reading local news than ever before – just not in print. Creating packages of print and digital is the best way to tell the story of one audience. Instead of approaching this as two separate products sales representatives are best suited toward putting these together and selling total audience.

(Block 2: Friday, Sept. 27, 11:40 a.m.- 12:10 p.m.)

1. ADMIN: Raising “Significant” New Revenue + Promoting News Literacy – Vicki Whiting, president, editor and founder of Kid Scoop News, Nebraska Press Association Executive Director Dennis DeRossett, and North Dakota Press Association Executive Director Cecile Wehrman

“The aim is to improve student literacy by making reading fun,” reports Cecile Wehrman, executive director of the North Dakota Press Association.

The result is $250,000 in new revenue that supports the distribution of Kid Scoop News, a 24-page monthly tabloid for elementary students, that has turned the printer of her weeklies into a local hero.

“He gets thank-you notes from children and cheers when he delivers bundles of the Kid Scoop News tabloid to the schools,” she said. “And since the mast of my newspapers appears on the front page of Kid Scoop News, children and parents are more connected to our weeklies.” In her new role as Executive Director, Wehrman has expanded funding to benefit member newspapers.

(Block 3: Friday, Sept. 27, 1:50-2:20 p.m.)

2. ADVERTISING: Street Smart Tactics to Reach Overwhelmed Advertisers – Adam Sessions, Broadstreet, Cary, North Carolina

Have you ever been ghosted? Ever had trouble getting your advertisers to pick up the phone, reply to your proposal, or spend any money at all?

What are the best tactics to make it to the next step?

Join us for the roundtable discussion, "Street Smart Tactics to Reach Overwhelmed Advertisers," at the NNA Foundation's 138th Annual Convention & Trade Show. In this session, you'll learn the best tips and tricks to get digital sales quicker and with less friction.

With over 10,000 doors knocked and countless sales calls, Adam brings over a decade of scrappy, truly street-level sales experience. For the past two years, Adam has applied his sales expertise to the news industry with Broadstreet, helping hundreds of publishers grow digital ad sales. This session will provide you with actionable insights and proven strategies that you can implement immediately to see real results.

During our discussion, we'll cover the best ways to reach overwhelmed advertisers at each stage of the sales cycle. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the real-world experiences of your peers!

(Block 4: Friday, Sept. 27, 2:25-2:55 p.m.)

3. CIRCULATION: The future of newspaper readership — how the Tonda Rush Scholarship Fund is here to help

In 2025, a new category is being added to the NNA Foundation Better Newspaper Contest — Best Newspaper Drive — with the winning newspapers receiving $500. We want to know who is doing something that works well and how they are doing it. The NNAF will use these answers to create a panel of experts and to develop a toolkit to help our already time-strapped publishers create their own readership drive. Join Lynne Lance and Tonda Rush to discuss this new, exciting program made possible by donations to the Tonda Rush Scholarship Fund.

See the full schedule to-date and register at NNAFoundation.org/convention.