Potential buyers of Knight Ridder still emerging
Potential buyers of Knight Ridder Inc. will spend the next three weeks collecting inside information from the San Jose, Calif.-based newspaper chain and its 32 daily papers, including The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

If they like what they see, they could bid for the company. Knight Ridder's investment bankers and disgruntled shareholders hope somebody will offer significantly more than the company's current value of about $4.3 billion on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Statewide public notice site, MyPublicNotices.com, to undergo upgrade
The statewide public notice Web site, MyPublicNotices.com (MPN), is about to get a major upgrade. MPN needs a little cooperation from PNA members to make the site’s transformation successful.

Starting Feb. 1, 2006, newspapers will upload their public notices to a new Web address. MPN is in the process of sending address change instructions to each newspaper.

PNA encourages newspaper managers and staff to watch for this information and to make the minor, local changes that are necessary, effective Feb. 1.

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Former Doylestown Intelligencer publisher has died
Charles P. "Chuck" Smith died Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006. He was 79.

For 32 years, Smith was the publisher of The Intelligencer newspaper in Doylestown. He retired in 2000.

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Gannett names Giallombardo VP of advertising
Gannett has named Leslie Giallombardo as vice president of advertising for the newspaper division.

Giallombardo was president and publisher of The Tennessean in Nashville until August 2005 when she left to form her own firm. Before becoming publisher in 2002, she was senior vice president of marketing at the Tennessean.

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Borrower Beware for Journalists— Reporting on Frauds, Scams and Other Consumer Concerns: Tools and Ideas for Journalists on Any Beat!
Jan. 24: PNA headquarters, Harrisburg, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Jan. 31: Kopper's Building, Pittsburgh, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Feb. 15: PA Institute of CPA’s, Philadelphia, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

This interactive session will touch upon key areas of credit and borrowing—including the pitfalls consumers can face as they finance their lives. This program will provide information on hot topics like frauds and scams—and ideas to help journalists on any beat identify personal finance angles for their stories.

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Keystone Press Awards
Deadline: Jan. 27, 2006
The 2006 Keystone Press Awards contest is now under way. Don't miss your chance to enter. Visit the Contests and Awards section of the PNA Web site, www.pa-newspaper.org, for more details.

For any questions, please contact Tracy Metz at (717) 703-3003 or tracym@pa-news.org.

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Display Advertising Contest
Deadline: Feb. 13, 2006
The 2006 Display Advertising Contest rules have been mailed. For any questions, please contact Tracy Metz at (717) 703-3003 or tracym@pa-news.org.

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From the Hotline: 
Does the PNA have any guidance on HIPAA and its requirements?

PNA's General Counsel Teri Henning answers this question.

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Use this link to visit the Headlines & Deadlines page which groups and archives Teri Henning's weekly 'From the Hotline' columns. 

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Read all about it: Newspapers are a buy
Newspapers, despite all the commentary and seeming evidence to the contrary, are good buys. They are the biggest purveyors and producers of content, and their profit margins are big. Yes, you read right; it's this last piece of information that is often lost in their business-model critiques.

Newspapers have profit margins that average between 20% and 30%. A report by the Newspaper Association of America points out that those numbers are "a bit less than Microsoft and Dell but higher even than pharmaceuticals."

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81% of adults (18-years-old or older) read America’s community newspapers weekly
Thumb through the stack of stories about newspapers on your desk, or type “newspaper” in the Lexis-Nexis or Google search boxes, and the resulting headlines might make you think the sky is falling on the newspaper industry.

Read those stories carefully, however, and you’ll find that most newspaper companies are churning out profit margins in excess of 20 percent. Many newspaper companies are achieving 30 percent margins, and some individual newspapers more than 40 percent. “If the sky is falling, I’d like some of that 20, 30 and 40 percent to fall in my lap,” says Brian Steffens, executive director of the National Newspaper Association.

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