Welcome to Tennessee Press Association Online

*Access to publishers only.

Directory information for TPA member newspapers may be found under "Newspapers Online" or by calling to order your copy of the 2008 Tennessee Newspaper Directory today. ($40 cover price waived for members and clients.)

TPA Advertising & Circulation Managers' Retreat set for Sept. 19-20 in Clarksville
TPA’s Advertising, Circulation and NIE Committees, plus interested members, will meet Friday and Saturday, Sept. 19-20, in Clarksville to plan the 2009 Advertising/Circulation Conference. Sandra Shelton, advertising director of The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, chairs the Advertising Committee, and Lou Lambert, consumer sales and marketing manager of The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, chairs the Circulation Committee.
Registration details PDF
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Training videos available 24/7 to TPA members
Online training was introduced to TPA members two years ago. The video series has new topics in Adobe Flash animation added this month. Each video is around 10 minutes in length, ranges from 15 to 40 megabytes in size and is designed to be downloaded to the user's computer. Videos are currently available on the topics of Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash, InDesign, OS X, Photoshop, and Quark XPress 7.0. Members can access these files in the training area of www.tnpress.com. A username and password is required. Contact TPA at (865) 584-5761 if you need this information.
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Only 10 spaces left at Institute of Newspaper Technology
Fifty of the 60 spaces in the 2008 TPS-UT Institute of Newspaper Technology have been reserved. If you plan to attend, but have not yet made reservations, we encourage you to do so within the next few days. The Institute will be held October 9-11 in Knoxville with attendees from all over the U.S. and some from Canada. The Institute of Newspaper Technology will offer classes in InDesign, QuarkXPress, Photoshop, InCopy, Dreamweaver, Video on the Web, Dreamweaver, PDF Troubleshooting and much more!

Find complete details at www.newspaperinstitute.com or contact Kevin Slimp at (865) 584-5761.

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Free Business Journalism Boot Camp Sept. 16 in Knoxville
A free one-day business journalism workshop will be held in Knoxville, Tenn., on Tuesday, September 16, 2008. This workshop is open not only to business journalists, but to journalists covering other beats who wish to learn more about covering business.

The “Business Journalism Boot Camp” program covers the basics of using numbers in understanding financials, deciphering government filings, covering private companies and writing effective profiles of companies and CEOs. This workshop is sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism and hosted by the University of Tennessee School of Journalism & Electronic Media; UT College of Communication and Information; Knoxville News Sentinel and the East Tennessee Chapter of SPJ. TPA is also a sponsor of the event.

Registration for this workshop is available at www.businessjournalism.org.

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Plan now for Constitution Day with free materials
Constitution day is September 17 and the Bill of Rights Institute has free materials for newspapers' use. Find details at: http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/ondemand/constitutionday/

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Public records request forms now available
The Tennessee Comptroller's Office announced the availability of forms to assist citizens and records custodians with the public records request process on August 12. Three forms were developed by the Comptroller’s Office of Open Records Counsel as required by Public Chapter 1179, Acts of 2008.

The Inspection/Duplication of Records Request Form is for use by citizens requesting copies of public records. The Tennessee Public Records Act prohibits governmental entities from requiring a Tennessee citizen to submit a written request when exercising the right of inspection. However, the Act does require a request to be sufficiently detailed to enable the records custodian to identify the specific records to be located or copied. The Inspection/Duplication of Records Request Form will assist citizens in making sufficiently detailed requests. The forms, along with instructions on how and when they are to be used, can be found on the Comptroller of the Treasury’s website at: www.comptroller.state.tn.us/openrecords/forms.htm.

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Safety vests required when working stories on federal highways beginning Nov. 24
Effective Nov. 24, a new federal regulation will require media representatives to wear high-visibility safety vests when working on stories on federal highways. The regulation from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was adopted in 2006, but not implemented until this year. The regulation applies to first responders, which has been interpreted to include media. Construction workers and others working in the rights-of-way of Federal aid highways are also affected.

The worker visibility provisions published by FHWA on Nov. 24, 2006, 23 CFR Part 634, Worker Visibility, state that all workers within the right of way of a federal-aid highway who are exposed either to traffic or construction equipment within the work area shall wear high-visibility safety apparel.

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2008 UT-TPA State Press Contests Awards Presented July 18

Photo credit: Elenora E. Edwards, The Tennessee Press
Representing the winners of General Excellence are: Mark Stevens, The Erwin Record; Bill Wellborn, Memphis Business Journal; Patricia Zechman, Southern Standard, McMinnville; Richard Stevens, The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville; and Mark Silverman, The Tennessean, Nashville

Winners of the 2008 UT-TPA State Press Contests Awards were announced at a luncheon on Friday, July 18 at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville.

A change in the contests for 2008 added a fifth division for competition and divisions were based upon total weekly paid circulation instead of daily or non-daily status. This change caused dailies and non-dailies to compete against each other, which occurred primarily in Group Three.

The 2008 divisions were: Group I—Combined weekly circulation of 5,000 or less; Group II—Combined weekly circulation of 5,001-15,000; Group III—Combined weekly circulation of 15,001-50,000; Group IV—Combined weekly circulation of 50,001-200,000; and Group V—Combined weekly circulation of 200,001 and above.

The winners of the 2008 General Excellence Awards, based on total points earned in the Contests, were: The Erwin Record, Group I; Memphis Business Journal, Group II; Southern Standard, McMinnville, Group III; The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, Group IV; and The Tennessean, Nashville, Group V.

The 2008 General Excellence Award represents the sixth consecutive top award for The Erwin Record. Both the Southern Standard and The Tennessean have received seven General Excellence awards out of the 10 since the points-based award was established in 1999.

Slideshow of Winners in PDF format (5 meg file)

Winners List 2008 Press Release 2008 Contests Entrants 2008

Winners' Logo General Excellence 1999-08 and winners lists 2000-08

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TPA Summer Convention Slideshow

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Save these dates

Sept. 19-20, Advertising & Circulation Managers' Retreat, Clarksville

details on these events and other calendar items

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2008
Press credentials
  TPA now offers members a more
   professional press card.
   View details and order form