Nov. 18: NC Press Foundation board meeting

Nov. 26-27: NCPA offices closed for Thanksgiving

March 14-20, 2010: Sunshine Week

March 18, 2010: NCPA Winter Institute at the Dean Dome, Chapel Hill

Please remember to run the tourism advertisements
The North Carolina Press Foundation receives the bulk of its annual funding through a grant from the N.C. Department of Tourism. By running their ads in your newspaper, the Foundation gets credit for each ad. This year, the Foundation also receives credit for online advertisements such as the one pictured here or to the left of this column. New online ads are now available for downloading. To get instructions on how to download, click here.

More details on upcoming contests
We’ve noted before that changes in the way newspapers will submit contest entries in the future are likely. This will be for both the Better Ad Contest and the News, Editorial & Photojournalism Contest. Be aware that the new system will require PDFs of entries instead of tearsheets or clippings for all but full-section categories. A deal has not been finalized, but we want to make sure you’re prepared in case the change is made.

Missing: Several front pages
We are in the process of collecting PDF or JPG versions of front pages from all NCPA members for the annual membership directory and for the member montage video for the Winter Institute. We have collected nearly 100 fronts, but we have about twice that number of member newspapers. Unsure of whether we have your front page? Click here for a list of front pages we still need. If your newspaper isn’t on the list, we’ve got yours. If not, please send a copy ASAP to john@ncpress.com. We want to make sure your newspaper is represented.

Know any good defenders of the First Amendment?
Each year the North Carolina Press Association honors someone not in the newspaper industry for his or her work on behalf of openness in government, free press and the First Amendment. The William C. Lassiter First Amendment Award will be presented at the Winter Institute. But first, we need nominees. Be watching for more information about how to nominate someone. In the meantime, please put on your thinking caps and come up with potential nominees.

• Jeffrey Green is the new vice president of sales and marketing at the Winston-Salem Journal. He most recently was president of the IWANNA division for Fayetteville Publishing Co.
• Jessie H. Nunery has been named sports editor of the Rocky Mount Telegram. He’s been with the newspaper since 2005.
• Chris Bumgarner has been hired as the advertising director of the News-Topic of Lenoir.
• Dwane Powell, editorial cartoonist for The News & Observer, retired Nov. 4.
• Gene Fowler Jr. has been named vice president and group publisher of Mountain Times Publications which includes the Watauga Democrat and other publications. He replaces Bruce Morrison who has retired.
• Staff writer Milburn Gibbs of the Chatham News/Record won nine awards in the North Carolina Society of Historians contest.
• Elmer R. Oettinger Jr., 95, the 1990 recipient of NCPA’s William C. Lassiter First Amendment Award and former assistant director of the Institute of Government, died Oct. 29.

• The Chronicle at Duke University earns top prize at National College Media Convention

• NNA offers new ad touting the strength of newspapers' Web sites | Download the PDF
• Several papers to begin testing Journalism Online's paid content model. Will users notice?
• Time Warner CEO: The push to charge consumers for news content will ultimately succeed
• Richmond Times-Dispatch's media campaign touts paper as 'solid and strong'
• Illinois judge rules identity of an anonymous poster must be revealed
• Massachusetts Lottery running new game through newspapers
• NNA urges more work on health care reform
• Supreme Court Justice insists he sees high school newspaper's story before it's published

• JILL GEISLER: What great bosses know about success
• E&P SPECIAL REPORT: Is there more money to be made in circulation?
• MAC SLOCUM: How a blog, a camera, and a court are feeding journalism’s long tail