Jeanine and I spent Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday in Charleston at the West Virginia Press Association Convention. I always return from these events with a renewed interest in my profession.
It is good to discuss with colleagues what is going on in our industry and papers. In these years where legislators are doing their best to destroy the only watch dog that ensures the public’s right to know… there was plenty to talk about.
There was also lots of discussion, mostly informal, about how papers are moving to and utilizing digital media to connect with their readers. I got some good ideas which, providing I find someone with the proper expertise, may well benefit our readers. When it comes to technology, I am very much in the dark. Yes, I can grasp the basics, but it doesn’t take long before most conversations on the subject are over my head. Fortunately, some of my fellow publishers’ knowledge are way above me. Some have offered their assistance to bring me into the digital age, even if they have to do it with me kicking and screaming. We’ll see how that works.
Being president of the WVPA Foundation Board put me in the mix to deal with the problems our organizations are currently facing. Our Executive Director, who had been with our organization just about a year, had to suddenly resign due to personal reasons. So, you can imagine that most of our meetings on Thursday were plotting a path forward. I am happy to report that while we don’t have all the answers right now, we are on firm ground. Doug Skaff, currently the Charleston Newspapers’ publisher and a long-time former legislator, will serve as our interim director while the board evaluates the association and sets on a course to fill the position permanently.
During our meeting we realized that the WVPA is operating on a principle and structure that is several decades old. All our organizations are committed to helping and preserving our member newspapers. That commitment still holds true; however, we realize, with changing times, we need to make sure we know what the needs of our members truly are. Obviously, everything has changed dramatically over those years and particularly in recent ones, so I think the analysis will be a good thing.
One of the main convention purposes is to honor newspapers for their work. Even though our newspapers don’t participate in the contests it was good to see and congratulate the winners. Our friends at the InterMountain in Elkins, which prints both of our papers was named Newspaper of the Year. They certainly deserve it. They are great to work with from our standpoint and their press quality is unparalleled in my opinion.
The final education session of the convention on Saturday morning was on Artificial Intelligence. I found it fascinating and downright scary at the same time. Regardless, the more we know about it the better it will be for our businesses and readers.
