Classroom

by Bart Pfankuch Anyone who has worked as a reporter or editor knows that it’s impossible to be fully engaged for eight (or 10) hours a day, five (or six) days a week. Journalism is a creative field that requires a lot of hard work, which tends to come in …

By Peter W. Wagner Little Johnny Jones hit a home-run at his pee-wee baseball game last Friday, but most of the town won’t know about it until they see the story and photo when the town’s newspaper comes out next Wednesday. The school board, meanwhile, hired a new high-school principal …

By Bart Pfankuch If one tip can improve your work, it would be … this one! After a couple decades of trying to help journalists get better at the craft, I’ve developed a long list of tips and tactics to spur improvement. And after attending and presenting at a few …

By Peter W. Wagner One of our printing customers includes the following observation just above the signature line on all his emails: “To say you don’t need newspapers because you’ve got the internet is like saying you don’t need farmers because you’ve got a grocery store.” In almost every community …

By Bart Pfankuch Whether writers realize it or not, we hear voices in our heads. And often, listening to them is a sensible thing to do and not a symptom of insanity. I speak not of voices of ghosts or those generated by an overactive psyche. Rather, they are the …

By Peter Wagner Many of today’s print advertising salespeople aren’t selling. They’re not getting face-to-face with potential customers and they are not “telling their story.” Too many print advertising professionals are simply getting by, slowing losing their customer base, soliciting new and repeat advertising by email. You and I know …

By Peter Wagner Have you noticed that all the really successful online retailers offer free delivery? Amazon sets the bar high with Amazon Prime two-day delivery of everything from A to Z. Their product inventory includes everything from a difficult-to-find book to necessary groceries for dinner that night. Target has purchased …

By Peter Wagner Smaller ads sold mostly to locally-owned businesses are a part of a community paper’s DNA. There weren’t any supermarkets, department stores or automobile dealerships when the majority of midwestern newspapers began publishing at the turn of the last century.  I have a framed copy of the Jan. …