From the Summer 2022 edition of California Publisher
Time has conspired once again to bring an end to summer. As sure as the leaves of autumn fall, most businesses will be looking to harvest their accomplishments and prepare their plans for the coming year.
That is certainly the case at CNPA. For even though our fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 April 1 to March 31 each year, we are working this fall to cap off staff-led programs that were launched earlier in the year. Among the most notable are initiatives to ramp up CNPA’s social media following and to stiffen resistance to attempts – legislative or regulatory – to bypass newspaper public notice for notice on government websites.
The association also has its eyes trained on the year ahead. CNPA is deep into the planning for a reimagined Capital Conference in 2023. The event returns following a three-year hiatus occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. More on our plans later in this column. But suffice it to say, the 2023 version is breaking a lot of new ground with a roster of nationally recognized newsmakers as speakers and panelists, original research, and discussions of publishing innovations paving the way to our future.
CNPA is also hard at work preparing to publish our second Annual Report. The first edition argued through prose and photos that local journalism is the most credible antidote to disinformation and was widely hailed by members, legislators and other key stakeholders.
The plan for 2022 is to emphasize the role of journalism in holding our communities – and our democracy – together. Once again, we intend to shine a light on the extraordinary news products that our members deliver to communities all over the state.
Preserving Public Notice
In Spring 2021, CNPA staff developed a pre-emptive strategy to combat attempts to have public notice distributed via government websites rather than in adjudicated newspapers. The plan was developed recognizing that 20% of annual revenue was at risk for the state’s adjudicated papers.
The initiative also took note of the fact that over the past two years, there was legislation in 46 states to have public notice distributed via government websites rather than in adjudicated newspapers. In 2021 alone, CNPA had to fight 15 bills that attempted to bypass public notice requirements in adjudicated newspapers.
The association’s response had three key elements. First, it worked with a digital public notice provider to create a statewide website facility where adjudicated papers could post their notice free of charge. The site offered vastly expanded distribution and, as important, a searchable, cloud-based archive for all notices.
Next, the CNPA Board adopted a bylaw change requiring adjudicated members to [1] post their notices at CNPA’s statewide CaPublicNotice.com, and [2] post notices on their own websites. To date, virtually every adjudicated CNPA-Member newspaper is using the statewide facility. More than 670,000 notices have been posted in the last eight months. This month, the staff is executing a plan to persuade 100 non-member adjudicated publications to post at CaPublicNotice.com.
Last, CNPA engaged in a remarkable piece of legal research that identified more than 1,700 public notice requirements in state and municipal law. That list is being prepared for exclusive distribution to CNPA Members. It will identify the most frequently used notice categories, break down data by state, county and municipality, and contain tips for how to use the information to make certain there is compliance – and notice placements – with statutes on the books today.
Each of these steps are in line either with laws already in place in other states requiring statewide posting at press association websites and/or with press association bylaws requiring statewide posting. In both cases, the moves have helped stave off threats to notice distributions via adjudicated newspapers.
Capital Conference 2023
Everyone knows that CNPA’s event-related revenue took a hit during the pandemic. We offset some of the shortfall with publications and a strong performance from the ad services network. With the pandemic largely behind us and in-person gatherings on the rise, the association is planning to stage a completely reinvented version of its traditional annual conference.
CapCon 2023 will bring together thought leaders to help explore “Rebuilding Trust in an Age of Disinformation.” The new format for the conference, which will take place from Jan. 31-Feb. 2 at Sacramento’s Kimpton Sawyer Hotel, is intended to be an emphatic return to the event scene in the seat of California state government. We hope to set a precedent that establishes CapCon as a must-go event on the calendars of our stakeholders. To do so, we will have a roster of speakers whose presentations spark the interest of registrants and make news doing it.
We expect the program to attract hundreds of members, legislators and other media association representatives. So keep an eye out for communiques from CNPA. We’ll have some exciting news to report on the lineup for the 2023 version of CapCon.
To conclude this autumnal report, I must remark on the harvest of accomplishments that our staff is creating for CNPA members. Though there are fewer of them, we have a bounty of riches when it comes to focused management, financial information and responsiveness, revenue generation, legislative victories and program advancements.
Someone once observed that falling leaves fall in love with the ground, as if to say the season was a time “to peel, to refresh, and to start again.” CNPA and its staff are doing just that … and it is invigorating our association and its advocacy in every way.
Emily Charrier is editor and publisher of Sonoma Media Investments’ Sonoma Index-Tribune and publisher of the Petaluma Argus-Courier.
(9/14/22) Corrects to show actual CNPA fiscal year.
