Kentucky Press Association

1
Kentucky Press Association

• 2008 Report to the Board
• on the Strategic Planning Project
• L. Darryl Armstrong Ph.D. APR CCMC

2
What we were asked to do

• contracted by the Kentucky Press Association
  (KPA) to collaborate with their strategic
  planning committee. we have assisted KPAs
  committee in the drafting of a new vision and
  mission and have researched and developed a set
  of recommendations for a strategic plan of action
  for KPA that extends over the next 3-5 years

3
Research undertaken

• A facilitated opening retreat with the KPA
  committee and Board members to assess the
  Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
  (SWOT) they perceive that KPA faces
• The development of a KPA opportunity map using
  the Innovator Computerized Polling system
• Interviews with KPA staff
• A survey of the KPA membership (84 members
  responded)
• Survey of 49 of the 50 press associations
• Facilitation and computerized polling of the KPA
  committee, staff and Board members using a set of
  assessments designed from the research projects
  plus the expertise and experience of ARMSTRONG
  and Associates

4
Value-add projects

• value-add means that these projects were not
  part of the original agreement and contract. They
  are provided because the organization needs this
  information to advance itself on a strategic path
  forward. KPA has not been charged for these
  additional reports.
• Survey of Kentucky newspapers with web sites and
  development of a general set of recommendations
  for improvement
• Focus group with Murray State University Public
  Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) on
  social media use and critiques of selected KPA
  newspapers

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Recommendations

• Based on a three year planning path
• Provides recommended actions and ideas to cover
  up to 5-years
• Resulting plan to be created must be written down
  with designated responsibilities, metrics,
  benchmarks and deadlines and published to be
  effective
• Will require annual objective assessment and
  re-calibration - report card to membership

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Year One - Beginning November 2008 through
December 2009

• Publish strategic plan with new vision and
  mission and provide complete report for all the
  membership to access
• Reorganize KPA to run like a business and an
  association that provides specific tailored and
  unique assistance to its membership focusing on
  tactics and management cultural change

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Year Two - January 2010 through December 2010

• Contract for an objective evaluation of year one
  accomplishments celebrate successes recalibrate
  as needed to implement other recommendations as
  part of the reorganization report same to
  membership along with report card of assessment
• Implement additional business operations
  recommendations
• Develop and implement extensive outreach program
  to membership based on recommendations in the
  report

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Year Three - January 2011 through December 2011

• Objectively evaluate year two accomplishments
  celebrate successes recalibrate as needed to
  implement other recommendations as part of the
  business operations plan
• Assess this entire report for additional
  improvements and tactics that can be implemented
  on behalf of membership report same to
  membership along with report card of assessment
  of previous year

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Proposed New Vision

• A vision is what you strive to become - it is
  the organization at its best sometime in the
  future
• KPA will be its members' source of excellence in
  the gathering, dissemination, and facilitation of
  news and information through multiple
  platforms.

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Mission

• The mission of an organization is resilient and
  changes as needed to do those things necessary to
  accomplish its vision

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Proposed Revised Mission

• The Kentucky Press Association will
• Maintain a stable, secure, and solid financial
  operation to perpetuate the organization's
  vision
• Uphold the highest ethical journalistic and
  business standards
• Collaborate with its members and other media to
  better understand the needs and interests of its
  consumers
• Be a leader in integrating and linking the
  internet and social web technology with its
  members and their consumers
• Search out and promote new strategic partnerships
  for its members' benefit
• Provide a platform for relevant training,
  exchange of ideas and resources
• Use a marketing plan to re-brand itself and its
  members to the public
• Be its members' voice to the Kentucky General
  Assembly.

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• We undertook a number of research and interactive
  planning projects to develop our recommendations
  for a path forward to help you achieve your new
  vision and fulfill your new mission
• The results from those projects and our key
  findings follow

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Research Projects Conducted

• Survey Of Membership
• S.W.O.T. Analysis
• Opportunity Map
• 49 Press Association Surveys and Research
• Interviews with KPA/KPS Staff
• Membership Feedback
• Series of Computerized-Assessments
• Independent Research by ARMSTRONG and Associates
• Social Media Focus Group
• Kentucky Newspapers on the Web Reviewed
• Regular Committee Meetings

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Project One Survey Of Membership

• 84 people (28) out of 300 possible returned the
  survey
• National research shows that if you get 30 you
  are getting an average return
• There was some concern about this low return
  rate, however, it is close enough to an average
  return we see no need for concern or questioning
  its validity
• When nearly 1/3 of any organizations membership
  responds the organization would be prudent to pay
  attention to what is being said

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Areas Surveyed - Project One

• Lobbying
• Communication on pending legislation
• Advertising placement
• Maintaining a high code of ethics
• Providing services you need
• Meeting industry changes
• Planning KPAs work and working that plan
• Anticipating new trends
• Providing insight into customers needs
• Finding and sharing new marketing ideas

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Findings

• No single category showed a Most Effective
  response greater than 51
• this shows there is significant opportunity for
  continuous improvement in all the categories
  surveyed
• An organization should seek to get a response
  greater than 70 in the Most Effective rating
  on all its programs or the programs should be
  evaluated for sun-setting

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Findings ...

• The categories with 50 Most Effective response
  were
• Maintaining a high code of ethics 50
• Communication to members on pending legislation
  51
• Lobbying 34.5 Most Effective Response

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Opportunities

• The categories showing the greatest opportunity
  for improvement were
• Anticipating new trends
• Providing insight into customer needs
• Finding and sharing new market ideas
• Providing advertising placement
• Planning the work of KPA and working the plan
• Meeting the changes of the industry

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Strengths

• Accessibility to all newspapers (in the state)
• Forward-thinking, responsive and diligent
  leadership supported by KPA staff
• Excellent Executive Director and its advertising
  sales force
• Legislative voice
• Member services (advertising network)
• Effective communication with membership

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Weaknesses

• Programs not specific
• No strategic plan
• Board members too busy to contribute
• Need for separate weekly and daily focus
• Need to overhaul revenue programs
• Lack of collaboration/communication among members
  

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Opportunities

• Internet
• Digital advertising
• Online directories
• Leadership role for newspapers to move into
  digital age
• Become effective advocate for all newspapers in
  state
• Develop strong web presence

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Threats

• Declining revenues
• Inability to quickly access members for lobbying
  purposes
• Shifting dollars from print
• Online publications that are not part of KPA
• Readers want to be entertained as well as
  informed
• Public opinion that journalists fall into same
  categories as politicians and used car salesmen
  when it comes to ability to trust them

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Major Concerns

• A new business model to make money using the
  Internet audience
• Changing newspaper operations to meet audience
  news and information needs
• Continuing need to attract quality journalists

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Barriers

• Tradition - always done it this way
• Fear of the unknown
• A business model that dates to the 1970s
• Inbreeding
• Failure to understand and embrace the importance
  of collaborating internally and externally

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Greatest Needs

• Web assistance in design, training and sales
• Bridging print and digital models
• Hiring and retaining good employees
• For KPA to be a major tool in marketing
  newspapers and digital products
• For KPA to develop online news, sports and
  information content for its members

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Project Two KPA Opportunity Map

• 1. Succession planning for KPA Executive Director
• 2. Transition from print to digital media
• 3. Dealing with organizational change
• 4. Training and development for membership to
  help move them from print to digital
• 5. Developing, creating and improving revenue
  streams
• 6. Dealing with outside threats Ky General
  Assembly
• 7. Pooling resources to collaborate and reduce
  expenses, share expertise
• 8. Developing better communications between KPA
  and its customers
• 9. Convincing readers of value of newspapers
• 10. Identifying new ways of doing business
• 11. Attracting people to the profession

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Opportunity Map
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Project Three Associations Surveys Ideas and
Models to Consider

• Community Newspaper Tune-up
• Community Technology Tune-up
• Taking training into the field
• Town Hall collaborations with cable, radio, and
  TV on areas of importance to community
• New public notices web site
• Training webinars
• Online training videos
• Statewide news portal - news aggregator
  services

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What Other Association Members Are Requesting

• Online advertising and placement network
• Member-focused training
• Online classified network
• More ways to generate revenue online and print
• More online sales all forms of ad sales
• Helping members develop online presence - easier
• Assistance with USPS issues
• Classified ad portal for print products

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Project Four Interviews, Facilitations,
Membership Feedback And ARMSTRONG And Associates
Research

• The final Innovator questionnaires and
  assessments provided significant insight from 15
  participants including members of the strategic
  planning committee and KPA/KPS staff members.
  Four of the 15 surveys were conducted by mail
  following the session in Lexington and
  incorporated.
• The participants were asked to rank statements on
  a scale of 1 to 9 with 1 being Completely
  Disagree with the statement and 9 being
  Completely Agree with the statement

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1. Assessing Organizations Instrument - 32

• ...often times unintentionally members of
  organizations may actually prevent the
  organization from trying new ideas
• change is inevitable
• .. members of organizations too often compete
  with each other
• ... newspapers are seeking to monetize the
  Internet while maintaining the same or better
  revenue streams from the traditional newspaper
• fear is fundamentally changing how many
  different organizations do their business.
• ...associations should be run like a business
  
• successful organizations exceed the needs of
  their members
• ... training programs should be offered based on
  need and not on the expectations of a Board
  member or two.

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2. Assessing KPA as an Organization - 100 Items

• Develop and follow strategic plan with goals,
  metrics, benchmarks, deadlines
• Review and sunset on annual basis programs not
  producing revenue or providing value-add to
  members
• Run KPA like a business with responsible
  managers, programs budgets, goals, metrics and
  report regular basis to Board - (reward and
  incentive program designed in advance)
• Find new digital models and offer digital
  training programs
• Provide technological assistance to members
• Promote and market KPA services to members
• Provide social media, videography and related
  mini-seminars at annual meetings
• Develop and market a statewide newspaper
  marketing campaign

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3. Vision and Mission Assessment - 32

• KPA needs a vision that includes social media
• Newspapers need to be watchdogs of government
• Editors should ensure fair and balanced
  coverage
• Newspapers need to learn how to collaborate
  internally and externally
• Newspapers must learn to collaborate with their
  competitors to remain relevant
• KPA facilitate the collaboration process of
  sharing ideas and information between its members
• Newspapers should use the Internet as the medium
  to break instantaneous news

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• Future newspapers will be multi-media platforms
  for the delivery of news, information and
  opinions
• Readers should have a role in determining news
  coverage or content
• KPA has the opportunity to be seen as a Source
  of Excellence in its new incarnation

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4. Strategic Themes Assessment
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Strategic Themes - 8

• Annually conduct a round table meeting with all
  competitors to discuss how collaboration can be
  better achieved
• Establish KPA as the Source of Excellence in
  leading the way into the new digital age for its
  membership
• Align KPA and its work program to evolve into the
  public relations firm for all the newspapers in
  the state
• Establish a collaborative working group with
  interested members of the legislature to resolve
  the public meeting and legal notices issue
• Invite professionals from the radio, television,
  public relations and Internet areas to present at
  each conference
• Take the information from the value-added report
  Review of KPA member web sites and use it to
  help the membership improve their sites

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5. Board Actions Assessment - 8

• Ranked high
• Establish a system of reporting where the Board
  hears from the Directors responsible for their
  programs on a regular basis
• Establish and implement 360-degree performance
  evaluations for all department managers
• Establish a committee to review the charter of
  KPA and all its existing bylaws including the
  size of the Board and length of service of the
  President
• Establish a standing strategic planning committee

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Not Ranked High Yet Important

• Establish a standing committee to annually review
  new revenue, program and membership
  opportunities, and make specific recommendations
  to the strategic planning committee.   
• Work with the Commonwealths universities and
  colleges to establish a think tank that meets
  at least twice annually to brief the Board on new
  ideas and programs they are finding and problems
  they are experiencing.

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6. Organizational Change Assessment 9

• Re-brand KPA using the best of its old brand but
  projecting a newer, more informative, dynamic and
  modern image
• Re-organize KPA so that special needs of dailies
  and weeklies are specifically discovered,
  programs developed and implemented by responsible
  team managers
• KPA has been run by newspaper people like it was
  a newspaper, more or less, since its beginning.
  But the organization is not a newspaper and that
  can be used for the betterment of the
  organization. Change paradigm to more of an
  association assistance organization  
• Reorganize KPA to run like a business in todays
  environment. Establish departments with managers
  who have written plans of actions with metrics
  and budgets for which they are accountable. Let
  them make the decisions as to how best to use
  their budgeted money in keeping with the agreed
  upon plan of action.

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• Establish an online advertising sales policy that
  supports online sales personnel with computer
  equipment, graphic artists expertise and the
  ability to negotiate rates with the customer
• Work with appropriate parties to develop and
  provide leadership training course for KPA
  managers and for the membership
• KPA should be reorganized to run more like a
  business with distinct profit centers
  established wherever possible 
• Establish an ongoing management cultural
  change-counseling program for KPA staff and
  membership. Work with universities to find the
  best available resources and counsel. KPA cannot
  change as an association until the management
  culture changes from top down driven to
  collaborative.

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7. Business Operations Assessment

• The participants ranked 46 suggested business
  operational issues
• 27 of the 46 ranked in or above the 70
  percentile.
• This means that these 27 should first be
  considered in making any changes operationally
• The remaining 19 should be considered within the
  5-year time frame as time and circumstances allows

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Just A Few Highlights ...

• Setup and run the association like a business
  with goals, metrics and profit centers
• Become a Source of Excellence for its
  membership
• Develop a marketing plan to sell KPA and its
  services
• Face-to-face regular meetings out in state with
  members
• KPA become state news aggregator
• Change internal KPA management culture to
  collaborative instead of top down autocratic -
  get counseling and training needed to do this
• Find a web service company to help make
  transition easier from print to digital
• Sunset programs that are no longer productive
• Offer contemporary needed training such as
  Working with Next Gen Videography Web site
  sales training

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8. Management Issues Assessment 7

• Hire dedicated and experienced sales people for
  online sales who have the capability of training
  others
• Review current staffing needs against members
  expectations and calls for new programs and
  assistance, and determine how best to use the KPA
  professionals
• Write job descriptions for each position with
  appropriate metrics to be used for annual written
  performance evaluations. Work with the people
  filling these positions to establish measurable
  goals. Report performance annually to Board.
• Recruit expertise and professionals for
  consultations in making the transition from the
  print to the digital venue

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9. Social Media Issues Assessment 5

• KPA should arrange and offer a social media
  experience and training session for annual
  conference.
• KPA ED should establish a blog and regularly
  share his ideas, opinions and advice with
  membership to demonstrate the move to being more
  social media friendly.
• KPA must better understand how to use and help
  its membership capitalize on Twitter, Face Book
  and My Space, etc. in order to advance the
  organization into the future.
• KPA should hire a social-media-experienced Next
  Gen employee dedicated to selling online ads.
• KPA has the opportunity to become a national
  leader in understanding the new social media
  application to the business.

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10. Web-based Issues Assessment 5

• Bring KPA information distribution including
  listing of our services and how they can help our
  membership online so they can be readily accessed
  and consistently and quickly sent to members
• KPA should regularly schedule and offer its
  membership webinars and online training to
  demonstrate its commitment to the integration and
  application of the Internet to the association
• Work with the web experts to develop a prototype
  for an online legal and public notice-advertising
  site as an alternative to the printed product.
  Use this proactive approach to collaborate with
  the Ky. Legislature.
• KPA should develop noncompetitive web-based and
  print products as a value-added service and make
  them available on their web site for the
  membership

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Project Five Value-add Report - Web sites of Ky
Newspapers

• We reviewed the web-based Kentucky newspapers
• We made 30 observations for consideration to help
  you improve the web sites
• We will provide a handout on this to KPA

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Project Six Social Media Focus Group -
Value-added Project

• Conducted at Murray State University
• 13 Students from MSU - PRSSA
• Web cast arranged - will be uploaded to Google -
  copy of videos to be provided
• Provided insight into social media use
• Provided critiques of daily and weekly
  newspapers

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Demographics of group

• My Space - 5
• Linked In - 0
• Face book - 11
• Twitter - 0
• Flickr - 0
• You Tube - 11, 1 uploads
• E-mail - 11
• Blogs for research - 5
• reflects only 11 participants - 2 came in late

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Demographics ...

• One person has their own blog.
• Blackboard used by everyone for school.
• How many read your hometown newspapers when
  youre at home? 5
• How many read their hometown newspaper on line
  regularly? 2/3
• How many read weekly newspaper when they go back
  home? 4

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Key Points On Social Media Use

• How many text? ALL
• How many times a day text? A lot. More than
  talking on phone. 200 text messages a month.
  Unlimited -- 200 messages a day
• If a newspaper offered a text messaging service
  that sent you news and events happening would you
  use it? Theyd like to pick out what they want
  to see.
• Just do it! Use Face Book to get started
• More likely to read if ... could receive topics
  by email

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• List newspaper as a group on Face Book so you
  could join and learn about the paper that way.
• Offer something more unique, hopefully news that
  actually matters to me as a Gen Next.
• Integrate (your newspaper) through the existing
  social media. Dont re-invent the wheel!
• The only way to reach college students
  regardless of social economics is through Face
  Book.
• When you put your links on Face Book offer the
  headlines the top stories ... offer a
  personalized homepage ... with text messaging.
• 27-year old Hire young people educated and
  knowledgeable to know what their generation
  wants. They need to change the language or style
  of news.
• I use Yahoo or CNN and Id like to have access
  more local things or if newspapers would step up
  and be more available Id use them.

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Critique of The Newspapers

• Create a newspaper geared towards us ... We dont
  read the paper because our parents do... I dont
  want to do what my parents do. Need edgy design,
  such as www.cnn.com or www.yahoo.com (on line)
  and print make a big deal about it nationally. A
  large enough audience will make their friends
  read it.
• 8 out of 11 respondents said they would pay for
  online services and newspaper subscriptions after
  graduation
• Offer incentives to parents - student discounts
  who can then pass the information along to us
• Devote a page to college students, editorials,
  features of interest to our age group
• Offer a classified section where we can reach the
  advertiser not just send in our resumes and offer
  professional jobs that we would have interest in

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• In general on newspapers reviewed
• Need clean front-page layout - some were awful
• Fewer stories and really good photography to pull
  in reader
• Write local slant to national stories - i.e.
  What does bailout mean to me?
• Dont load up front-end of paper with advertising
• Lead with bad news to pull me in
• Why would you want readers to read obits first?
• Like the menus and boxes telling whats
  inside the newspaper
• Larger budget larger staff better newspaper
• Have one story at least per page that applies to
  all demographic groups you want to reach
• Bigger paper has more credibility than smaller
  newspapers
• Newspapers should be fair and balanced
• Many newspapers are biased in their reporting

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Social Media Focus Group Video
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• Questions?
• Contact us at
• Dr. L. Darryl Armstrong
• drdarryl_at_aol.com
• 1.888.340.2006
• www.armstrongandassociates.org