MINUTES
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009 • 7 p.m.
Talley Student Center Walnut Room — 4th floor
CALL TO ORDER
PRESENT: Kelley Brackett, Lyndsey Warhurst, John Clark, Bob Ashley, Dean Phillips, Bryant Robbins, Ty Johnson, Helen Dear, Mike Alston, Laura Frey, Charlie Weinfield, Bradley Wilson
GUESTS: Jamie Lynn Gilbert, Krystal Pittman, Fred Eaker, Russell Witham, Saja Hindi, John Cooper Elias, Peggy Boone
ABSENT: Al McArthur, Louise Bannon, Meagan Gay, Demi Olubanwo
OLD BUSINESS
- Approval of minutes — The minutes were approved as amended with corrected spelling of Lyndsey Warhurst’s name and the correction of a number error in the WKNC report.
- Review of Corrections Policy — Johnson reported that Witham is doing a better job of getting corrections up online and doing so in a much more timely fashion.
- Problems with Technician story on Mary Beth Kurz — Ty reported that 38 people attended the training Nov. 8 by Mike Tadych with Everett, Gaskins, Hancock and Stevens. Johnson said Tadych talked a lot about working with the News & Observer. Dean Phillips asked Johnson what he learned. Ty said that the speaker was involved with the Easley subpoenas and he learned that all of the news media were having trouble getting access to this material not just the Technician. Johnson said he learned he shouldn’t take it personally when he gets stonewalled in such a situation. “It’s hard to do.”
Bob Ashley asked what kinds of questions the staff asked. Johnson said they had some discussion about a cartoon in the Technician and the potential for libel with it after some football players were seen drinking in a bar after a game. Russell Witham, Viewpoint editor, said they had some discussion about libel concerns with cartoons that they really hadn’t thought of before.
Johnson said the attorney got more interesting as the discussion went on. He said the attorney talked for about 15 minutes then answered questions. Johnson said one student asked for a definition of libel.
Bob Ashley said this was a good speaker who understood the issues. Ashley asked why the material wasn’t put up sooner. The staff was notified of the pre-test at 6:38 p.m. on Saturday night for the Sunday training. Johnson said he allowed 15 minutes for the staff to take the pre-test on Sunday afternoon. 32 people took the pre-test, Johnson said. Johnson said the staff was notified of the training Thursday. Wilson said he found out about it Friday afternoon.
Ashley asked how the staff reacted to the training. Johnson said the staff will complete online training evaluations and that he would bring a summary of the evaluations to the next Board meeting. Ashley reminded Johnson that it doesn’t make sense to do any more pre-testing at this point. Johnson said he would put material up online for the rest of the staff to learn from. He said the handouts that Wilson gave him were from the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Center for Copyediting Excellence and Editing in the Electronic Era.
Dean Phillips asked what the value of the training was to the staff. Johnson said he thought it was a slap on the wrist at first. But he said he was excited that 40 people showed up for the training. He said it was good seeing the staff come together. He said there were good questions asked that drove the discussion. “It was good seeing my staff act like a newspaper staff.”
Mike Alston said the actions of the Board, including sending the letters of apology and conducting the training class, have been met. Alston asked Board members if there was any further action required by the Board.
Ashley said he was disappointed that the pre-test and post-test weren’t reviewed by members of the staff and that so few took it. But he re-itereated that this was a good speaker.
Dean Phillips urged Johnson not to wait on these kinds of things. “Get on it.”
Fred Eaker asked Johnson if there were other kinds of training he would like for the staff. Johnson said he would like to bring in a journalist, maybe an opinion writer or columnist. Johnson said we do a lot of training for the design, photo and news staffs, but not so much for our columnists. “Good opinion writing is an art.” Wilson said the spring retreat would be Jan. 8-9 and after school is out in the fall, the senior staff members and he would meet to discuss and plan retreat.
Ashley asked if Johnson had been successful in reporting the followup to the original story. Johnson said he still has not been able to get in touch with Mary Beth Kurz and no one else is talking. - Evaluation system for student leaders — Wilson gave the group a draft of the student leader evaluation system based on comments from the advisory boards last month and asked anyone with suggestions to get them to him by next week. He said the staff members would be given the evaluation forms the last two weeks of the semester and the editor would be given the self-evaluation form. It would all be anonymous. Then the top student leader and the adviser would review the material. The compiled material will be presented to the advisory boards in January.
NEW BUSINESS
REPORTS
Technician — Johnson reminded the group that the flag football game between the Technician staff and The Daily Tar Heel staff will be Nov. 20 at 4:30 p.m. on Miller Fields.
Johnson reported that the current managing editor told him recently that she would not be returning in the spring semester as she has to complete an internship. Eaker asked who the potential people were to fill that position. One was Daniel Ellis who is not on staff this semester but has been in previous semesters. The other was Lauren Blakely who serves as design director. Johnson reported that he expected David Mabe to apply for the photo editor’s position that will become vacant when the current photo editor leaves to study abroad. Wilson reminded everyone that with only three weeks left in the semester, any open positions needed to be posted for applicants to submit their cover letter and resume in time to do interviews before people left for winter break. The Technician retreat, required of all senior staff members, will be Jan. 9-10. Mike said he would consider opening up all positions to see who applies. “It’s cool to see who’s interested.” Eaker asked if Johnson was going to be looking for a Web editor if David Mabe became photo editor. John Clark re-iterated that the Technician does not need a techie; it needs a media person.
Windhover — Dear reminded the group that the Open Mic Night was Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. in the Caldwell Lounge. John Clark said he really liked the Web site. “It’s really quite good. I was very impressed. The approach you’ve taken is quite good.”
WKNC — Alston told the group the AudioVault upgrades were approved and the money has been set aside. Now we’re working with the vendor and engineering staff to get the dates for installation. He said he is looking forward to some convergence with Windhover on Open Mic Night, recording portions of the event and airing it on Saja Hindi’s public affairs program. Gilbert said that WKNC starts airing NCSU women’s basketball Friday, Nov. 13.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
The Student Media Advisory Board may adjourn into executive session to discuss matters of litigation, potential litigation or personnel.
ADJOURN
REPORTS
Agromeck
Submitted by Bryant Robbins, editor
NO REPORT
|
Deadline |
Date | Pages due | Pages sent | % submitted | # sources | Avg sources/page |
| 1 | Aug. 17 | 84 | 84 | 100 | 467 | 5.56 |
| 2 | Sept. 18 | 32 |
32 |
100 |
518 |
16.12 |
| 3 | Oct. 16 | 32 | ||||
| 4 | Nov. 20 | 40 | ||||
| 5 | Dec. 11 | 16 | ||||
| 6 | Feb. 19 | 44 | ||||
| 7 | March 12 | 10 | ||||
| 8 | March 26 | 30 | ||||
|
April 21 |
DELIVERY |
.
Nubian Message
Submitted by Demi Olubanwo, editor
NO REPORT
Technician
Submitted by Ty Johnson, editor
Budget — I finally received a copy of Technician’s budget shortly after the last board meeting. A quick look at the numbers (mostly payroll) shows we’re actually under budget. The recent hires haven’t put a strain on payroll.
Personnel —We’re about to begin the application process for editors for the next semester. There is a decent core of returning editors, but most difficult to replace will be Ana, who will be taking an outside internship as required for her major. I have spoken to two potential managing editor applicants and have heard another is interested in applying, so I’ll be speaking at length with them leading up to the beginning of the application process. News, which was a rocky section, now has a good foundation to build on in Amber, my deputy news editor. She will be ready to take over news in the spring, and I’ve spoken to four reporters who are interested in a deputy position. Sports will be strong next semester with likely little change, and design will have zero turnover. Viewpoint has a strong core, but at least two deputy features editor positions will likely need to be filled. I’m making contact with each of them before applications open to determine in what way they’ll be contributing next semester. I will also need to hire a new photo editor, but one qualified applicant has already told me he is interested.
Training — Putting our trainings online in a class-like atmosphere has helped out a lot, as well as requiring it for payment. Bradley hired a TA to oversee the class and it has allowed me to focus on other things.
Technology — Compiled by David Mabe:
CLICK HERE for PDF of detailed charts.
Technician Online Summary:
- On Oct. 16 the column “What a Nobel farce” by Zakk White had a total of 6,641 pageviews, generating a significant amount of traffic. The increased traffic was due mostly to referrals from Google News. In the period from Oct. 13 to Nov. 3 the column alone accounted for 9.79 percent of pageviews, and was second in pageviews only to the home page.
- Twitter followers: 229 (primary), 54 (sports)
- Facebook Page fans: 221
Coverage — With mid-terms claiming the time of many reporters, our breadth of coverage took an expected dip during this past month, but in its place we’ve acquired a decent core of talented writers. Those who found time last month had an advantage in that editors worked more one-on-one with them. I feel like our reporting improved ten-fold during this past month, mostly from this phenomenon. We’re still hitting our news beats well, but few of my reporters have been able to do investigative work since they’ve been working to create content daily. Viewpoint’s columnists are taking on varied topics and the features subsection plan has finally taken off in the way I hoped with each deputy taking pride in his or her page. Sports coverage has really picked up, especially with football as our novice reporters have finally gotten comfortable enough to take on the big stories.
Deadlines — We’re struggling to hit the marks on the production schedule, but we’re making deadline consistently at this point of the semester. There has been a very noticeable change in culture in the newsroom as the staff expects to make deadline every night, now, instead of being surprised. It’s a very welcome change in atmosphere, and I think the staff is taking ownership of the entire paper, now, versus being concerned only about each individual task.
Ethics/Legal issues — We had five corrections between Oct. 13 and Nov. 4. Russell has continued to Web corrections, and Ana and I have been more keen on fact-checking articles behind reporters to cut down on errors. Beyond the occasional comma splice and style inconsistency, I feel we’re right where we want to be.
Windhover
Submitted by Helen Dear, editor
Windhover’s most recent activity has been focused in several areas: publicizing Windhover, initial planning for the print edition, organizing Open Mic Night, and continuing to update the Web site.
Meeting with the Advisory Board committee in October helped in giving Windhover’s publicity some more direction and ideas on how to reach a greater proportion of students on campus. A triptych of screen-printed posters (set of three: one for literary submissions, one for visual, one for audio) have been hung in most major buildings on campus (including Centennial campus). These posters are for general submission; posters advertising Open Mic Night (Nov. 22) will be posted by Nov. 5. The two-sided postcards have been delivered and many have already been distributed. One postcard was placed on every desk in the studios in Brooks and Leazar Halls. Postcards and 2009 books will be on display in DH Hill and the Design Library as soon as we are granted permission. I gave postcards to several English students (both graduate and undergraduate) to distribute in their English classes. The three designers are also going to distribute postcards in their non-studio classes and make announcements about the submission deadline.
The College of Management representative stressed to us during the Advisory Board meeting that she felt there was no Windhover representation on the business/management areas of campus. To try to fix this, we have made more of an effort to advertise in non-CHASS and design areas (like Centennial campus, Nelson hall, etc). Saja Hindi helped me record two PSAs: one for general submissions, another announcing the upcoming Open Mic Night. These two PSAs are in circulation on WKNC. A graduate student in English, Celeste Oaks, is working with me to organize and acquire quality literary submissions from English undergraduates. Celeste TAs in two sections of ENG 289 (Intro to Poetry). She plans on working closely with her students to get them to submit poems or other literature. Celeste has five graduate TA friends who will do the same. We are hoping that this close contact and encouragement from the TAs will render five or six submissions per class. I am excited about this cooperation because Celeste is immersed and knowledgeable in CHASS and the English department — a community I am not as familiar with. Other forms of publicity include mass e-mails sent to the head of each department/college (then forwarded to students), a small ad on wknc.org, and house ads in the Technician.
The designers and I have also been discussing initial decisions for the print edition of Windhover, such as possible typefaces, themes, and color schemes. I met with Frank Pulley from Theo Davis Printing recently. We discussed our budget situation and how many books we will print (2500).
Planning for Open Mic Night is underway. Open Mic Night, Windhover’s third annual evening of reading and music performances, is Sunday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. in the Caldwell Lounge. I am contacting people who read or performed last year as well as those who have submitted this year. Bobby Graf and Joe Wright are in charge of setting up the audio equipment in the space. I plan on meeting with Mike Alston to see how Windhover can collaborate with KNC at the event.
The Windhover Web site is updated almost daily with literary, visual, and audio submissions. The site has a new banner and bar at the top with direct links to Art/Audio/Design/Photography/etc sections. The Submission Policy button is also more obvious. I am pleased with the sudden surge in submissions, and hope this continues throughout the rest of the semester. For more on the Web site progress, see the Web Report below.
From WordPress:
Total stats:
Total views: 3413
Average views per day: 27
Busiest day: Thurs, Oct 29 (356 views)
Views on 11/3: 31
Most viewed pages include (in order of most to least) (in the past 30 days):
Submission Policy (got substantially more views than other pages)
About
Awards
Post #54
Post #219
Post #55
Post #48
Top referrers for the past 30 days include:
facebook.com/home.php
wknc.org
mail.google.com/mail
Trends: The number of visits per day to the Windhover site seem to be growing on a weekly basis. In the week of Oct. 19, there was a +72.6% increase in visits from the week before. In the week of Oct. 26, there was a +545.24% increase in visits from the week before. In the week of Nov 2, there was a +123.07% increase in visits from the week before.
From Google Analytics: (from Oct 4 – Nov 3)
751 visits
97 pages were viewed a total of 2,348 times
00:02:44 average time on site
3.13 pages per visit
Traffic sources:
39% from search engines
35% from referring sites
25% direct traffic
Top content:
/windhover/ – 876 views
/windhover/submission-policy – 165 views
/windhover/category/archives/photography – 130 views
/windhover/about/ – 93 views
/windhover/category/archives/poems – 69 views
Two types of visitors:
73% returning visitors
26% new visitors
Facebook:
157 fans as of Nov 3 (up from 45 on Nov 1)
two peaks of interactions: Oct 19 and Oct 21
fan demographics: 29% male, 46% female
four interactions this week
44% post quality
WKNC
Submitted by Mike Alston, general manager
Revenue
Non-fee income (money in the bank), as of Nov. 1, 2009: $10,482.05
Tir Na Nog — $5,050.00
Regular donor announcements — $3,655.10
Promotions — $800
Recording Fees — $30
Live Nation — $600
Sports — $295.95 (carry-over from FY0809)
Merch Sales – $51.00
Sponsorship sales, as of Nov. 1, 2009: $3,667.50
While October sponsorship sales were on target, we are still about $1,000 behind due to poor sales in July and August. We are continuing to add new clients.
July — $517.50
August — $600 [incorrectly reported at $850.00 last month]
September — $2,300
October – $1,526.50
Personnel
- Liz Cervantes was hired as co-production manager to take sole responsibility as production manager when Carter Neely graduates in December.
- Matt Tobia was hired as creative services manager.
- Graham Bruns was hired as audio resources manager.
- We are interviewing for daytime music assistant and will be opening up Afterhours and Underground music director.
Training — Jeremy Leonard represented WKNC at the National College Media Convention.
Technology — We are moving forward with the purchase of a new radio automation system. Broadcast Electronics (Audiovault) was the only vendor to submit a bid.
Coverage — WKNC further expanded its on-campus presence Oct. 30 with the second installment of our “Fridays on the Lawn” concert series. Presented in conjunction with UAB, IRC, and SG, the event drew a pretty good crowd while directly conflicting with the Design School Bash. There is one remaining show for this semester, on Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. in the Wolves Den.
On Halloween night, WKNC broadcasted a live Raleigh-centric adaptation of Orson Welles’ radio drama War of the Worlds. It was well executed, and the group that performed is already brainstorming another radio play. In the meantime, War of the Worlds will re-air on Nov. 15 at 8 p.m.. I am strongly in favor of such presentations; the broadcast generated an abnormally high number of streaming listeners for the weekend and was our most-visited blog post in the month of October.
On Nov. 5, WKNC will broadcast live from the kick-off event of the annual Durham music festival Troika. WKNC is a co-sponsor of the event for the second year in a row.
WKNC is also participating in UAB’s All-Night Bash Nov. 5. We will have a table at the Pack Howl Homecoming concert Nov. 6, and I will be emceeing the event and inserting tidbits about WKNC at various places in the four-page script.
Web — Analyzed for the time period Oct. 7 – Nov. 2 and, where applicable, compared to Sept. 9 – Oct. 6 (matching days of the week).
Oct. 7 – Nov. 2
War of the Worlds Blog — 900
Mars Volta Show Canceled — 749
Tag: “Chris Barnes” — 782
88 Hottest Women in Indie Rock — 569
Raleigh Zombie Walk — 554
We’re seeing a decided increase in direct traffic, which can only be a good thing in terms of awareness. They, and referred Technician viewers (46 in a month = only Saja?), spend the most time on the site. It’s also encouraging to see the pages/visit value be above two in so many categories; two pages implies the viewer goes from the home page to the listen page and then exits.
As of 11/4/2009, WKNC881 on Twitter has 1007 followers.
Society for Collegiate Journalists
Submitted by Susannah Brinkley, president
The Society for Collegiate Journalists celebrated National Freedom of Speech Week Oct. 19 to 25 by setting up a Free Speech photo booth on the Brickyard. SCJ members invited passersby to write whatever they chose on a laminated speech bubble and then have their photo taken. Participators were given fliers about free speech, as well as a link to the SCJ Web site, where they could download their photo. Vice President May Chung also posted the photos to Facebook. Meredith Faggart, treasurer, and Megan Myers worked with Jamie Gilbert and Mike Alston to create a PSA to advertise the celebration.
The Web site is still a work in progress. Luis Zapata, historian, is in charge of uploading minutes to the site, as well as uploading photos and articles as they come up. In the next month, Susannah Brinkley, president, and Luis will work to bring parts of the site up to date. In the month of October, the SCJ Web site saw 98 visitors, according to Google Analytics. Some visitors originate from searches and Facebook, but most of them are organic searches. SCJ is also considering a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account.
Retention has remained the same since the last board meeting. SCJ still has eight members, and in the coming months we will discuss recruitment tactics for the spring semester.
Sheridan Barker, past president of the Society for Collegiate Journalists National Council, visited N.C. State Oct. 25 in preparation for the SCJ Biennial Convention to be held March 5 to 7. Martha Collins gave Sheridan a tour of potential spaces for the convention. Sheridan expressed it would be best if the convention could be held in one building. Several SCJ members, Martha and Sheridan discussed ideas for sessions, and decided on a theme for the convention — “The Changing Face of Media.”
Also, Bradley Wilson, Martha, May, Luis and Susannah took Sheridan to The Raleigh Times for lunch, which is where the N.C. State chapter of SCJ will likely host a dinner during the convention. Sheridan’s visit was cut short because he had to return home sooner than he expected, but it seemed as though he was pleased with his tour and was excited for the convention.
Susannah visited with the SCJ National Council at the National College Media Convention in Austin at the end of October. Bill Reuhlmann, executive director of the SCJ National Office, Mary Beth Earnheardt, president of the SCJ National Council, and Rick Stewart, journalist-in-residence, were all in attendance at the National Council meeting. All were willing to help with the planning of the convention. Bill had been in touch with Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, who has agreed to be the keynote speaker at the SCJ Biennial Convention. Susannah spoke with Frank about teaching a session about libel, blogging and social media. Susannah also presented a $1,000 check to the SPLC on behalf of the SCJ National Council at one of the awards ceremonies in Austin.
Business office
Submitted by Laura Frey
|
Week |
Prospects | Meetings | Contacts | Sales |
| 1 |
3 |
2 | 21 | $7,295.70 |
| 2 | 4 | 1 | 19 | $6,985.55 |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 27 | $13,501.24 |
| 4 | 5 | 3 | 22 | $6,274.49 |
| 5 | 2 | 0 | 26 | $6,634.96 |
| 6 | 1 | 0 | 19 | $6,629.46 |
| 7 | 4 | 2 | 21 | $5,173.48 |
| 8 | 2 | 1 | 13 | $9,638.83 |
| 9 | 3 | 0 | 12 | $8,665.36 |
| 10 | 24 | 2 | 27 | $7,030.22 |
Revenue — Since the last meeting our local sales have increased $10,000, which is $6,000 more than last year at this time. However, this is still not enough to make up for our lack in national and campus advertising. We are currently working on increasing our sales for the basketball preview and have set the deadline as Nov. 6. We are pushing our sales staff to increase their amount of meetings with their clients so that they have a more personal relationship.
Training — We held our monthly sales staff training session on Friday, October 23. We gave them a pre-test to see how knowledgeable they were, without looking at their notes, then gave them a refresher on all of the medias. The next week we gave them the post-test to evaluate how helpful the training session was and it seemed to be helpful since they all had higher scores.
Staff — We have done some rearranging in our office, as we had to let a sales representative go due to bad performance. She was replaced with one of our office assistants and the transition has been very smooth, clients have been updated and pieces have been put back together for that territory. Overall, I think our new sales representative will be a great addition to the team.
In December we will be losing a total of three staff members to graduation, one sales representative, one designer, and one office assistant. We have enough staff to cover the design team but we will need to hold interviews for both the office assistants and sales representatives. We will be looking for at least one sales representative to cover the territory and most likely two office assistants. These new staff members will need to be trained by the end of the year so that when next semester comes around they will be prepared.
Budget update
As of Nov. 1, 2009 — CLICK HERE for PDF version of update
Technician advertising billed: $105,925.77
Technician projections for collections: $98,510.97
Technician budgeted income to date: $129,715.60
Technician actual expenditures to date: $74,042.97
Nubian Message local advertising sold to date: $180
Agromeck local advertising sold to date: $0
Agromeck total advertising sold to date: $3,490
Agromeck book sales to date: 1
WKNC non-fee income to date: $14,118.35