| June 2000 |
| Summer Convention
Features New Program and Mountain Location The MDDC Press Association's Summer Convention, featuring several new program segments, will move west this year to the beautiful mountain country near Cumberland instead of its usual trip east to the ocean or Eastern Shore. |
| MDDC Seeks New
Advertising Director Chuck Boteler, who has led the MDDC Press Association’s advertising programs for the past four years, has resigned effective June 30 to establish a freelance media planning/consulting business. |
| Tech, Circulation
Committees Gearing Up Two new MDDC committees, dealing with newspaper technology and circulation, have begun operations over the past month. Each group held an organizing meeting in May, identified the needs in their areas of expertise, and formed subcommittees that already have begun working on means to address those needs. |
| Salisbury, Cumberland
Newspapers Sold The Thomson Corp. announced June 8 the sale of The Daily Times, in Salisbury, the Times-News, in Cumberland, and their related publications to Gannett Co. and Community Newspaper Holdings Inc, respectively. |
| News Briefs Cleghorn Scholarship Endowment Established A scholarship endowment for nearly a quarter of a million dollars in honor of Reese Cleghorn, retiring dean of the Univeristy of Maryland School of Journalism, was announced during the college’s May 25 commencement excerises. Free Press Journalism Fellowship Created The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has created a new fellowship for experienced reporters with an interest in free press issues. Ad Spending Increases Newspaper advertising for the first quarter of 2000 showed an increase of 5.7% over the same period in the previous year, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Total spending was $10.8 billion. |
| Profile: Richard "Dick" H. Amberg, Jr. Dick is vice president and general manager of The Washington Times and has been with newspapers since leaving active Navy service in 1966 (he stayed in the Reserve and retired as a captain). Dick started as a management trainee at the Staten Island Advance, was an assistant editor at the Syracuse Post-Standard, and from 1972 to 1986 was at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, progressing to executive editor and general manager. He was publisher of the Montgomery Advertiser for over 10 years and general manager of The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.) before joining The Times at the end of 1998. He joined the MDDC Board in 1999 and chairs the Circulation Committee. |
| Advertising
Department
Update Classified Re-keyboarding? MDDC polled its classified network participants about delivery options for each week’s classified network ads. Believe it or not, nearly 75% of you are still re-keying the ads every week. The other 25% are receiving the ads via email or the MDDC Web site and are able to "cut and paste" or otherwise import the ads into their systems. |
| Legal
No
Defamation? "Newgathering Torts" May Hit you Like a Truck Once again, a federal appeals court has allowed plaintiffs to win claims against a news story based on theories conjured up by the imaginative plaintiffs’ bar, accusing the news reporter of "tortious" newsgathering, even though the libel and privacy claims failed. This time, the story was about over-tired truckers. Next time, it may be your investigative story, so heed this column and set aside the fact that this is a television story. |
| Libel Verdict Upheld in
Delaware Court A jury’s decision against The News Journal for its account of a doctor’s treatment of a former patient was recently upheld by the state Supreme Court in Delaware. The court found the determination of liability was supported by the facts presented to the jury. |
Text Navigation Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association |