New York City NewsTrain is June 6-7

NewsTrain will be in New York City on June 6-7 for a two-day workshop on covering disasters and tragedies, including how to help staff cope with the emotional toll of such stories.

NewsTrain is sponsored by APME and this workshop is hosted by The Associated Press in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia and the Mid-Atlantic; New York Daily News; Asbury Park Press, Neptune, N.J; The Press of Atlantic City; New Jersey Press Association; The Record of Woodland Park, N.J.; New Jersey APME; Digital First Media/Journal Register Co. in Conn.; The Philadelphia Inquirer; the Philadelphia Daily News; the Albany (NY) Times Union; the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle; 1010 WINS, CBS Radio New York; The Observer-Dispatch, Utica., NY; the New York State Associated Press Association; CUNY Graduate School of Journalism; The News Journal of Wilmington (Del.); the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma; the Asian American Journalists Association.

Location: The Associated Press headquarters, 450 W. 33rd St., New York, NY.

Registration: Cost is $75 for the workshop and food service.

Register at this link: http://www.apme.com/events/event_details.asp?id=309318

Diversity Scholarships Available: The Associated Press Media Editors Foundation is offering diversity scholarships to its New York City NewsTrain workshop, June 6-7, for print and broadcast journalists and students who are pursuing careers in journalism. The scholarships will cover the cost of the two-day workshop along with the recipient's accommodations and travel expenses, if needed. Candidates in the New York metro area will have the best chance. In all, up to five scholarships will be awarded. Interested journalists and students of color who need assistance attending NewsTrain in New York should send a resume, cover letter and several clips or examples of their work by May 15 to Sally Jacobsen at sjacobsen@ap.org.

Questions: Contact Michael Roberts, NewsTrain Project Director, mroberts.newstrain@gmail.com. Sally Jacobsen, The Associated Press, sjacobsen@ap.org.

Learn more here.

Deadline extended for APME Journalism Excellence Awards

APME Journalism Excellence Awards Recognize Public Service, Watchdog Journalism, First Amendment Journalism, Innovation, Digital Storytelling, International Perspectice in Local News   Monetary Awards in Four Categories   The awards honor superior journalism and innovation among newspapers, radio, television and online news sites across the United States and Canada. The awards seek to promote excellence by recognizing work that is well-written and incisively reported.   There are four changes this year: The Digitial Storytelling category will take a more feature approach to multimedia storytelling. The Public Service Award now carries a $1,500 prize for the Overall Winner of the three divisions, as awarded by the APME Foundation. There are also more clear definitions in the Innovator of the Year categories. And the First Amendment Awards will offer a $1,000 prize for the overall winner in the Sweepstakes Award. It is now named the Tom Curley Sweepstakes Award in honor of the retired president of The Associated Press who championed these rights. The award is sponsored by the APME Foundation.   Four of the categories offer monetary awards: the Seventh Annual Innovator of the Year Award for newspapers, the Public Service Awards, the Fourth Annual Gannett Foundation Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism and the First Amendment Awards.   All awards are presented for journalism published or launched between May 1, 2012, and April 30, 2013.   The deadline for entries is Friday, May 24, 2013.   The entry fees are $75 for APME member and $100 per entry for non-members.   The awards will be presented at the APME annual conference Oct. 28-30 in Indianapolis, and are linked on the APME website. The finalists of the newspaper Innovator of the Year will present at the conference, and the winner will be selected by conference attendees.   Nominations are received online only. The contest site is at https://www.omnicontests4.com/?comp_id=1054.   More information is here.

APME joins protest of Beyonce tour photo restrictions

Colleagues,

Perhaps you are aware that Beyonce has kicked off her latest tour in the UK.  That's not news but the photo restrictions for this production are news.

Her agency says there are no photo credentials for this show.   You will be allowed to download photos from every show provided by Beyonce's agency.  Some of our colleagues in the UK declined to download any images and coverage went without photos.

APME signed on a letter with other news organizations protesting the restrictions.  The letter from NPPA is attached.

If Beyonce is coming to your area beware they only want "flattering" coverage.

Amazing.

Teri

Teri Hayt

Executive Editor

GateHouse Ohio Newspapers

The Repository | The Times-Reporter

The Independent | The Suburbanite

APME condemns Justice Department actions

The Associated Press Media Editors Association condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the actions of the Justice Department in seizing phone records of The Associated Press.

In condemning this action, APME joins the Society of Professional Journalists, the Radio Television Digital News Association and many other journalists across the country.

“In a continuing witch hunt for leaks and whistleblowers, the Obama administration has chosen to trample the First Amendment,” said APME President Brad Dennison. “Freely tossing around the word ‘transparency,’ as this administration is prone to do, does not make it so. This action clearly demonstrates that President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. have absolutely no interest in an open and transparent government.”

AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt called the action a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather news, and has requested that all phone records be returned immediately. APME is standing behind this request.

“There is no conceivable explanation for this overly broad request,” Dennison said. “So ultimately, the entire news industry must view the administration’s actions as blatant intimidation and a not-so-veiled effort to let news organizations know their records also can be seized with impunity.”

In addition to supporting its colleagues at the AP, APME is calling for discussion and implementation of a federal shield law. This law would protect journalists from having to reveal their sources and documents, ensuring that journalists and confidential informants would not be silenced by the threat of federal prosecution or subpoena. Under a proposed shield law, the federal government must prove to a judge that the information sought outweighs a journalist’s need to maintain confidential information.

“A shield law would keep lazy prosecutors from going after reporters’ notes and phone records,” said APME First Amendment Chair Teri Hayt, “and compel them to actually conduct investigations that do not step all over the First Amendment.”

APME and other journalists have been pushing for a shield law for several years to protect, in part, against exactly the type of outrageous activity the AP is facing.

The Associated Press Media Editors represents thousands of journalists in the United States and Canada. APME works closely with The Associated Press to foster journalism excellence and to support a national network for the training and development of editors who will run multimedia newsrooms in the 21st Century. APME is on the front line in setting ethical and journalistic standards for newspapers, and in the battle for freedom of information and the First Amendment.

Missouri newspaper wins APME grant; papers in Ohio and Pennsylvania chosen as finalists

A Missouri newspaper’s proposed project on the issue of methamphetamine in its community has been selected as the winner of APME’s Community Journalism Public Service Initiative.

In winning the second-annual grant, the Sedalia (Mo.) Democrat will receive a $1,000 grant from the Associated Press Media Editors and an expenses-paid trip to present the project at APME’s annual conference in October in Indianapolis.

Democrat Editor Dennis Rich proposed the “Meth at the Crossroads” project because of the problem posed by his newspaper’s location in west-central Missouri at the crossroads of U.S. Highway 50, a major east-west corridor, and U.S. Highway 65, a “busy north-south shipping route.” He and city/crime beat reporter Emily Jarrett will work on the project.

“While we enjoy the benefits of a broad local manufacturing base and tourism dollars because of this proximity, there is also a downside that has proven costly both in terms of lives and resources,” Rich wrote. “Our project … would provide a comprehensive look at how and why meth comes to our area, what effect it has and what resources are available to reduce trafficking, possession and abuse.

“It is our hope that by engaging community members across multiple platforms and media formats we can give our readership a clear and thorough understanding of the issues and, potentially, encourage public officials and lawmakers to more carefully examine the resources dedicated to interdiction, treatment and public education.”

The runner-up for the grant was The Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia-Dover, Ohio, for its project examining foster care, and the other finalist was the Observer-Reporter in Washington, PA, for its project on the homeless.

To be eligible for the grant, media organizations must have a website and serve a metropolitan area (MSA) of 100,000 or fewer people. They were asked to submit a public service project that addresses a long-standing community issue The projects had to use print and/or digital platforms and include social media or mobile strategy. There was also an expectation that part of the project would be published before Sept. 1.

“The grant shows APME’s continuing commitment to  community news organizations in this country. They are the backbone of journalism,” APME President Brad Dennison said. “These projects being undertaken by these three newspapers in Missouri, Pennsylvania and Ohio show the impact they can have on their communities. They are examples to all of us.”

Members of APME’s Awards/Great Ideas/Innovations Committee selected the winner, runner-up and finalist. Joe Hight, editor of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, and David Arkin, vice president of content and audience for GateHouse Media, are co-chairmen of the committee.

Judges said they were impressed with the proposal and the project’s potential impact on the Democrat’s readers and the community.

“It appears to be a very brave and important effort, which could help Sedalia and other communities understand and deal with a cruel scourge afflicting many smaller towns,” wrote judge George Rodrigue, managing editor of The Dallas Morning News.

Linda Negro, managing editor of the Evansville, IND, Courier & Press, said the Democrat showed that it had done significant reporting before proposing the extensive project.

“The facts and figures alone that have already been collected show a clear, compelling case,” said Negro, one of four judges. The other two judges were Meg Downey, managing editor of The Tennessean, and Laura Kessel, managing editor of the News-Herald in northern Ohio.

Last year's grant winner was The Daily Citizen of Beaver Dam, WI, for its series on "Mental Health on Hold," a multimedia project on mental illness in the community. Staff members Megan Sheridan and Trista Pruett presented their work at the 2012 APME conference in Nashville.

NEW YORK CITY NEWSTRAIN, JUNE 6-7

NewsTrain will be in New York City on June 6-7 for a two-day workshop on covering disasters and tragedies, including how to help staff cope with the emotional toll of such stories.

NewsTrain is sponsored by APME and this workshop is hosted by The Associated Press in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia and the Mid-Atlantic; New York Daily News; Asbury Park Press, Neptune, N.J; The Press of Atlantic City; New Jersey Press Association; The Record of Woodland Park, N.J.; New Jersey APME; Digital First Media/Journal Register Co. in Conn.; The Philadelphia Inquirer; the Philadelphia Daily News; the Albany (NY) Times Union; the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle; 1010 WINS, CBS Radio New York; The Observer-Dispatch, Utica., NY; the New York State Associated Press Association; CUNY Graduate School of Journalism; The News Journal of Wilmington (Del.); the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma; the Asian American Journalists Association.

Location: The Associated Press headquarters, 450 W. 33rd St., New York, NY.

More information is here: http://www.apme.com/?page=NewYorkCity

Registration: Cost is $75 for the workshop and food service.

Register at this link: http://www.apme.com/events/event_details.asp?id=309318

Become a NewsTrain Ambassador

NewsTrain kicked off its 10th anniversary year with a great first event in Springfield, Ill. In all, 90 journalists and students attended the workshops.

Freedom Sings performed at a 10th anniversary event at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site. Among the guests were Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln. See photos from this event by clicking here.

Announced during that reception and performance was a NewsTrain Ambassador campaign for 2013.

The campaign hopes to reach NewsTrain alumni and supporters across the United States and Canada. 

NewsTrain is still going strong, and this is the year that we hope people can give back.

Can you support NewsTrain with a $100 or more donation? If so you'll become a NewsTrain ambassador and you'll be recognized online, in the APME News magazine and at the APME conference in Indianapolis in October.

If not $100, can you give a smaller donation to NewsTrain? All donations are tax deductible and will go toward keeping NewsTrain strong for many more years.

Find details in this NewsTrain Ambassador flier or at www.apme.com. You can donate online here. 

Help us help NewsTrain.

Mandy Jenkins discusses how reporters and editors can maximize their social media efforts during an APME NewsTrain presentation in Springfield, Il. Monday, April 29, 2013. Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register 

Michael Roberts discusses how to spot adn develop enterprise stories off a busy beat during an APME NewsTrain presentation in Springfield, Il. Monday, April 29, 2013. Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register

Paul Overburg discusses how to dive into government data during an APME NewsTrain presentation in Springfield, Il. Monday, April 29, 2013. Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register

Musicians Bill Lloyd, left, and Don Henry, center, finish of the song "Wake Up Little Susie" along with Ken Paulson, president and CEO of the First Amendment Center, right, during a performance of Freedom Sings, a musical program by the First Amendment Center, as a part of the APME NewsTrain at the Old State Capitol, Monday, April 29, 2013, in Springfield, Ill. The event featured pieces of music that had been banned or censored along with a discussion of how music was used for social change. Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register

Freedom sings, a musical program by the First Amendment Center, as a part of the APME NewsTrain at the Old State Capitol, Monday, April 29, 2013, in Springfield, Ill. Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register