MACPA

Committed to Recycling? There’s an Award for That!

Alyse Mitten — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:43:00 +0000

The 2012 American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) Recycling Awards are officially underway! The annual awards recognize outstanding paper recycling efforts of schools, businesses, and communities.

Publishers are invited to enter this contest with their own programs -- and encouraged to spread the word to local scholastic and nonprofit recycling leaders. You each have a chance to win a $2,000 cash prize, original framed artwork, and recognition in local and national media. Winners and finalists will also be featured as best practices on the paperrecycles.org website.

Thanks to the efforts of millions of Americans who recycle paper every day, in 2010 a record-high of 63.5 percent of the paper consumed in this country was recovered for recycling. While this is great news, the paper industry has set a new goal of exceeding 70 percent recovery by the year 2020.

The new recovery goal is part of an extensive, quantifiable set of sustainability goals set by the industry in an initiative called Better Practices, Better Planet 2020. This effort represents the next phase in the forest products industry's on-going legacy as a leader in sustainability, from raw materials and product manufacturing, to the health and safety of the workforce, to the economic contributions the industry makes in local communities. For additional details on the suite of goals included in the Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 initiative, please click here.

AF&PA is pleased to recognize successful and innovative school, business, and community paper recycling programs as part of this effort. Award-winning programs and finalists in each area provide valuable case studies and best practices that can be replicated across the country, further improving our collective paper recovery results.

The deadline for entries is February 10, 2012, you can click here to enter the contest today: http://www.paperrecyclingawards.com/ For detailed criteria, case studies of previous AF&PA Recycling Award winners and more information, please visit paperrecycles.org.

Committed to Recycling? There’s an Award for That!

Alyse Mitten — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:43:00 +0000

Connecting Readers With the Workings of Washington, DC

Alyse Mitten — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:14:00 +0000

Citizens are getting engaged in federal policymaking at record levels. A new report shows that Congressional offices have seen the volume in constituent communications rise between 200 and 1,000 percent since the turn of the century. That's a phenomenal jump in interest and involvement from our neighbors and readers.

At the same time, original, local sourcing of national affairs has contracted at inverse proportions. Today, fewer than half of the states have a dedicated reporter sending news back home from the banks of the Potomac.

What if there was a way to fill the gaping void? A way to share the straightforward facts about current legislation, capture local opinion and advance the debate? A tool to drive additional traffic and a resource to glean community generated content? And all at no cost to your papers?

If this sounds interesting, here's some good news. There's a free online platform called PopVox.com that does all of the above. Our free community paper industry has been using them for several months now in grassroots advocacy efforts. We've been part of the rigorous beta testing process, and our hands-on has been a two thumbs up.

While PopVox.com is an excellent tool for driving communication to Congress, it also provides a wealth of unbiased information of local interest. You can cut through partisan spin with matter of fact legislative summaries by bill number, and links to the actual language. Or you can track whats new, what's trending in popularity and what's scheduled for consideration. With easy to use widgets you can essentially host your own online forum on any pending legislation as well as track, map, display and capture comments within the communities you serve.

www.PopVox.com has a lot of untapped potential for publishers. And for the price -- access, data, widgets and dynamic content are FREE! -- it's well worth a look to see how you might benefit from connecting your readers with the real-time workings of Washington, D.C.

.......

Here's a look at how POPVOX can help local publishers. With POPVOX, you can:

- Pick out local quotes (from your district or state) supporting/opposing a bill. (Say your local reporter is doing a story on the water contamination at Camp Lejeune, NC, and the effects on veterans stationed there. On POPVOX, you can find personal accounts (https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s277/report#nation). Or you're covering a national story like Postal Reform, but want a perspective from the local area your paper is based. You can drill down and compare national sentiment with, for example, what Floridians think, and also find a comment written by someone locally (https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr1351/report#state=FL)

- Search activity feed to find what comments are coming up in the district. This will allow a reporter to have the pulse of the local area. What are people commenting on? What's on their minds? And perhaps be able to report on a trend or concern before it reaching the tipping point.

- Pick a "comment to Congress" or "quote of the week" to highlight in an editorial or text box.

- Use data and public sentiment when interviewing local candidates. If a candidate says, "no one in my district supports x, y or z..." a reporter can ask a great follow-up question based on the publicly displayed comments on POPVOX.

- Invite local legislators to respond your constituents on the paper's website. All comments to Congress written using POPVOX are delivered to the appropriate Congressional office. So why not ask them to follow up in an interview?

- Add widget to article pages that mention bills or in editorial columns -- to empower users and have them view the local newspaper site as their place for action. (https://www.popvox.com/services/widgets#splash)

- Add localized comment stream (displaying only comments from the district). You can display all comments -- supporting and opposing -- from a district on a particular issue, so it's neutral, dynamic content for your website. (https://www.popvox.com/services/widgets#commentstream)

Connecting Readers With the Workings of Washington, DC

Alyse Mitten — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:14:00 +0000

.......

Here's a look at how POPVOX can help local publishers. With POPVOX, you can:

- Pick a "comment to Congress" or "quote of the week" to highlight in an editorial or text box.

FREE AT LAST

Alyse Mitten — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 04:41:00 +0000

Free At Last!
Inside the Legals Victory in Ohio
by Jim Haigh

Years of persistence -- what some have called blind optimism and others, insanity -- paid off when Ohio Governor John Kasich signed the biennial Budget into law on June 30, 2011. Contained in the 3,264 page document were 420 pages of provisions that bring the legal advertising process into the 21st Century. It is a model of comprehensive compromise in both policy and politics, so much so that the key stakeholders locked in perennial antagonism all declared victory at the end of the day.

Local Government cheered the very real cost savings on otherwise unfunded mandates. The pay-to-read press heralded the preservation of legal advertising in print, which was not entirely a given this time around -- and their enthusiasm spilled into an historical whitewash of relentless opposition great and small.

And for the free community paper industry: We're finally legal in Ohio.

All of which is best for the people -- as better informed citizens and as taxpayers footing the bill. But this legislated outcome didn't happen by itself. It didn't happen overnight or with a Hail Mary as time ran out. Nor because any major stakeholder suddenly abandoned self-interst for altruism. Columbus Messenger publisher, Phil Daubel, began his personal crusade over twenty years ago with some very near misses along the way. Guess which influential lobby always managed to pull the plug?

From our rise as an industry generations ago, free community papers have fought for the right to publish legal advertising. For at least the last decade and a half, measures have been introduced across state legislatures that would take that public notice out of print and place it all online. During this latter span of time, both alternatives to subscription newspapers made advances at the margins of select types of official notice. But neither vision became the model of wholesale reform of any state's legal advertising regime since our industry's victory in Minnesota last century.

What I call the Buckeye Compromise embraces both the realities of the digital age -- and the time-tested power of papers without paywalls. Progress was methodically paved over the last half-decade through the legal establishment of a Task Force charged with making change, constructively engaging that commission, having hands in the direct process turning an eight page report into nearly five hundred pages of legislative sausage, and advocating the ultimate provisions as bills and amendments. That is the essence of the long, slow process where all parties were held to their bottom-line gives and takes. Which is not to say that even the agreed-to framework wasn't subject to backpedalling and covert obstruction.

The publicly endorsed nuts and bolts -- legalizing free community papers with audited circulations, capping rates at lowest earned commercial, allowing for internet posting in lieu of second paper for same notice and for summarized descriptions on second consecutive print publication -- cemented the fallback position, a mousetrap of sorts. Our peers with the monopoly, and the license to print money, still hoped to stall any movement. While our friends -- and soon to be advertisers -- would have much preferred doing away with print altogether. That was basically Governor Kasich's original proposal, and that worst-case scenario feeling quite real drove home, finally, the wisdom of expanding print to save it.

I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of prominent free community paper veterans that have told me these last few years that our Legals ambitions were doomed to the internet. But I, along with enough equally stubborn folks, continued to believe that we could finally achieve reform because of the internet. Ohio can and should become the first state domino in this still-new century. To do so we must leverage the larger fear of the incumbent monopoly -- total migration to the internet -- and continue working with Local Government to quantify the very real savings we will bring. This won't change the underlying competing ambitions -- to stall just one more legislative session and otherwise to push web-only or bust -- but having our fallback option on the table at the beginning increases the odds should process approach endgame. As we now see in Ohio, not only can this be done but all sides can even feel like they won when the dust finally settles.

Become a Fan of Legal Advertising Reform!
http://www.facebook.com/LegalAdReform

FREE AT LAST

Alyse Mitten — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 04:41:00 +0000

Become a Fan of Legal Advertising Reform!
http://www.facebook.com/LegalAdReform

Legal Notices Get the Go With Free Papers in Ohio

Alyse_Mitten — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:22:08 +0000

Chipping Away At This Wall One State At A Time
We finally won the ageless battle to publish and bill for it!!
By: Jim Haigh

Legal advertising/public notice. Fellow publisher Phil Daubel, assisted by his wise and influential advocate Luther Liggett, began the Ohio fight over 20 years ago with near misses along the way. I’m a relative rookie to the Buckeye State effort, bringing MACPA help for only the last 6 years. Our language finally passed as a provision in the Budget, signed into law on June 30th — the effective date 90 days out makes up officially legal for legals on September 28th. Cheers to Phil, Luther and all publishers who have reached out to their legislators over the last years urging this critical reform — this is a huge victory for our industry!!! Look for more details on this and other industry related Legislative Issues at www.paperchain.com

Helping the Postal Service Help Itself

Alyse Mitten — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:58:00 +0000

Volumes are being written about the fiscal state of affairs at the USPS these days. Sadly, much of it is oppositional commentary -- and what passes for reporting is increasingly incomplete or inaccurate. Many publishers are members of the Saturation Mailers Coalition (if you're not, and you mail, you should be!), where they receive the facts straight up -- along with critical analysis and a longstanding seat at the policy table.

Those who follow the US Postal Service closely understand that, in spite of cyclical and structural conditions, the USPS would actually be in the black if not for unique, burdensome mandates including pre-funding health benefits of yet-to-be-hired retirees. The casual observer of Postal affairs is hard pressed to find mention that this $5.5 billion annual obligation alone drives the revolving shortfall, or to read that the USPS is actually due somewhere between $50 billion and $75 billion for years of pension over-payments.

In so-called main stream media, even the successful ongoing efforts to cut costs and achieve operational efficiencies get short shrift -- like the $12 billion saved right-sizing its workforce the last few years or even the $3.8 billion in cuts from latest labor negotiations. Instead, the average citizen is exposed to Postal "news" in a simple, and generally false frame: Sinking ship bailing water with a teaspoon. Some of the harshest coverage has come from the Wall Street Journal, ironically with no disclosure that they oppose reforms to the below-cost priority delivery of their own publication (http://bit.ly/iJrYxh).

The latest cost-cutting measure, announced this week in a press release entitled "U.S. Postal Service Institutes Cash Conservation Plan -- Payments to FERS Suspended" (http://1.usa.gov/k00Sc4) is already getting the "grasping at straws" treatment. Coverage has universally depicted the anticipated $800 million current year savings (by not needlessly adding to the $7 billion account surplus) as a drop in the bucket, compared to the projected operating deficit. Missing again is the context: The unique pre-payment burdens and historical overpayments noted above -- and the fact that these and other operational fixes can only happen by Congressional action.

Most coverage of the latest Postal cost-cutting also missed another critical fact: There's legislation that would actually fix the immediate fiscal impediments. HR 1351 -- the Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 2011 -- is endorsed by the Saturation Mailers Coalition and the broad, diverse consensus of Postal Stakeholders, including the Free Community Paper Industry. This important legislation will help the USPS help itself, allowing it to continue paving its self-sustaining path: http://bit.ly/mySCNR

Helping the Postal Service Help Itself

Alyse Mitten — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:58:00 +0000

Live, Long & Prosper

Alyse_Mitten — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:53:00 +0000

If Captain Kirk of Star Trek was to write an article about the upcoming conference it might sound something like this:

Captain’s Log
Star Date: January 11

We are stuck here on the planet Earth with an economical war of debt and taxes that has left many of our fellow publishers wondering what the future holds.

But there’s hope!

Out in the outer sphere of the Delta Vega call Harrisburg, is where all the nations of publishers will travel by transporters at warp speed. They will arrive by Star Date, March 9 at 0800 hour so as not to miss a minute of any of the adventures yet to be experienced at the Regional Galactical gathering.

Speakers from other civilizations will bring their knowledge of growth and emerging technology. Master of Banner Sales from the Floridian Sector of the Universe, “Mike Binder” will share the nuts and bolts on how to survive these trying times by marrying online and print objects to ramp up our command post engines.

Captain Kevin, a fine chap from Tennessee Delta, who thinks WE have a strange way of talking, will provide our chief “graphic” engineers with the knowledge and tools “to boldly go where no graphic designer has gone before.”

Our AM* comrades, Lieutenants, Captains, and Fleet Commanders, will arrive on their starships and research vessels with precious gems and nuggets of information to help improve and repair our fellow publisher’s own command posts.

As the evening hours come upon us, we will gather to communicate, celebrate, and enjoy each other’s company at the Captains’ Ball for Captains Alan and Jeff as we hail their years of service and ceremoniously recognize the incoming fleet of officers.

The hours will quickly pass when we travel to our resting pods for much needed REM, only to awake refreshed and ready for another day filled with adventures.

But, wait; it’s my understanding that somewhere in outerspace may be an alien who wants to invade the safe confines of our space, called the Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey. Captain Larry Fecho from Entourage Entertainment will arrive to save the planet Earth and this quadrant. We must all be on high alert to make certain our teams will succeed with no casualties.

The talented team from TLI, Master Sergeants Jim and Bill, will save the day with their infinite wisdom and wit by training our sales force to send them off with more knowledge then when they arrived. HR Specialists will direct us in making certain all is well with our publishers’ command posts. Star Commander Jim, from the political front with bring to us a plethora of information from the central command of the lands of O-H-I-O and P-A, as well as the federal star fleet of U.S.A.

As we leave in the fashion of MACPA “Hugs” and “Handshakes” and take off at warp speed to our command posts, we realize maybe this planet Earth isn’t as challenging as we thought because we know we can count on our fellow publishers and MACPA to help us through these tough times.

Captain Kirk,
Signing off from ST:VI

Ghostwriter for Captain Kirk, Alyse Mitten

*Associate Members