Independent Newspapers Inc., Inspired By the First Amendment

3) ETHICS: We are committed to upholding high ethical standards in all of our dealings. We attempt to treat every individual (inside the company and outside) with courtesy and respect.

4) STRENGTH: While our mission is our driving force, we recognize that we must earn sufficient profits to ensure the company's continuity, independence and growth.

1) SERVICE: We strive to help our communities become better places to live and work through our dedication to conscientious journalism and by providing a vigorous advertising marketplace.

2) ETHICS: We intend to be a company of which we can all be proud, known for its integrity, fairness and respect for others. Our business relationships are built on honesty, service, quality products and value. We seek all-win relationships. We believe we can be successful without victimizing anybody.

3) VALUE: We strive to provide our customers with valued products and services at competitive prices. We are constantly in search of ways to improve the value and service that we provide and to increase our effectiveness and efficiency.

4) IMPROVEMENT: We set only one goal - continuous improvement. But we do lots of measuring of trends, so we also know how we are doing.

5) CONSULTIVE SALES: We reject manipulative sales tactics in favor of a consultive approach. We achieve long-term success by helping our readers and advertisers become more successful.

6) RESOURCES: We make maximum use of our resources and capabilities to pursue our mission. We continuously seek to improve quality and efficiency. We intend to continue to be environmentally responsible.

7) EQUIPMENT: We take pride in getting optimum performance from our equipment through careful use and good maintenance. We stand ready to upgrade or replace our equipment whenever such an investment can be cost justified.

8) SUPPLIERS: We want our outside advisers and suppliers to be committed and valued partners in our success. We seek long-lasting and mutually-beneficial relationships. In return for our loyalty, we expect our suppliers to treat us as most favored customers.

9) INTERNAL CUSTOMERS: When our divisions do business with one another, they charge the same competitive prices that they would charge outside customers and provide the same level of service. Our ability to attract outside customers for these services provides proof of our efficiency and effectiveness.

10) ADMINISTRATION: We try to design the company's business policies and practices so that they support our mission and values. We look for effective solutions and brilliantly simple systems. We take pride in meeting our legal and financial requirements in the least bureaucratic ways possible and in providing an atmosphere in which Independent's values can flourish.

1) PURPOSEFULNESS: We encourage and support meaningful community involvement and provide citizens with the knowledge they need to make rational decisions about public issues. We emphasize local coverage. We try to provide understanding of key issues, not just reporting the latest events. We write for the citizen, not for officials. We select our content for relevance and usefulness. We recognize individuals who are involved in the community.

2) RESPONSIBILITY: We report the news with honesty, accuracy, fairness, objectivity, fearlessness and compassion. Our opinion pages provide a vigorous forum for community discussion of public issues, within the bounds of fair play. We maintain a reputation for purposeful neutrality, and guard it zealously.

3) HUMILITY: We constantly strive for the truth, but never claim to possess it. We treat people with respect, courtesy and compassion. We correct our errors and give each correction the prominence it deserves. We provide a right to reply to those we write about. We disclose our own conflicts of interest or potential conflicts to our readers.

4) FORMAT: We use a standard format to make it easy for readers to find what they want. The content is carefully organized for usefulness and time-efficiency. We make sensible and creative use of graphics, illustrations, indexes, charts and color when available.

5) ADVERTISING: Advertising creates a marketplace in the newspaper's pages which not only serves readers and advertisers, but also helps ensure a vigorous local economy. Advertising is a critical part of our total package and is organized for reader relevance, usefulness and convenience. The newspaper's advertising should help our readers make intelligent choices about the goods and services they wish to use.

6) PRINTING: We take pride in producing products that are printed crisply, dependably and efficiently.

7) DELIVERY: No matter how good the quality of the newspaper, the effort is wasted if it does not get delivered on time. We must make it as easy as possible for readers to subscribe to our newspaper, delivery must be consistent and timely, and the methods of payment and customer service must be as hassle-free as possible for our readers.

1) COMMITMENT: We strive to attract people who are enthused about Independent's mission and who share our values.

2) SELF-MANAGEMENT: We expect each individual to accept personal responsibility for his or her own success and for the company's success. We want all of our people to feel that this company is theirs and that they can make a difference in how it operates and whether it succeeds.

3) LEARNING: We expect each individual to make a commitment to continuous learning, accepting responsibility for his or her own continuing growth. The company makes appropriate training material available for individual self-education.

4) COURTESY: We expect each person to treat every other individual with courtesy and to uphold the highest ethical standards.

5) TEAMWORK: We expect each individual to be a team-player, team-builder and consensus-seeker. We all share responsibility for the company's success, for maintaining pleasant and safe working conditions, and for recognizing fellow staffers who are upholding the company's values and contributing to its success.

6) EQUITY: We insist that people be judged by the quality of their work and their contribution to the company's success, without regard to their race, color, gender or other extraneous factors.

7) STABILITY: We strive to provide stable employment except for performance-based terminations, career advancements or transfers.

8) COMPENSATION: We strive for competitive compensation based on the job, the market and the individual's performance. We try to allow people to self-manage their benefits to the fullest possible extent, structuring premiums and benefits to encourage individual responsibility.

9) LEADERSHIP: We strive for leadership, not for supervision. People in leadership positions challenge and coach their associates. They are expected to help each of us become all we can be and to help the company become all it can be.

10) SHARED LEADERSHIP: Our leaders make direction-changing decisions, but consult and seek consensus to the fullest practical extent. They try to share the leadership with everyone who has shown he or she has something to contribute.

CONTRIBUTION: By fulfilling our mission and living our values, we will elevate the level of citizenship in our communities.

EXCELLENCE: We will excel because our people share our values and are committed to achieving excellence for themselves and for the organization.

VITALITY: We will maintain our basic values and purposes, while continuously changing everything else to meet changing needs.

STABILITY: We will manage conservatively to ensure the company's continuity and preserve its independence.

GROWTH: We will expand when our existing operations are sound and when the expansion makes sense for us and for the communities we serve.

IDEAL: We will earn respect for our service to our communities, our ethical standards, our relationships with people, the value we offer our customers, our innovations and purposefulness, and our business success. In so doing, we will provide a worthy model for the industry and a source of inspiration to all whose paths we cross.

For further information, click on the state where you live:
Arizona
Delaware
Florida
Maryland

Other states: webmaster@newszap.com

1. WELCOME

Welcome to the Publicity Guidelines published by Independent Newspapers, Inc. and newszap.com.

These guidelines give you useful tips for getting your news on the World Wide Web through newszap.com and into print with Independent Newspapers.

These tips can be used to get your message out to your constituents AND to the broader community, which can be a town or city or the world, through the Internet.

Independent wants to help because publishing your news is important; it is what we do. It is the “stuff” that makes our products and our community pages at newszap.com sparkle.

More important, we believe that the pages of the newspaper and the pages at newszap.com belong to the citizens of the communities we serve.

We call that Key Value #1: “Our mission is to publish purposeful newspapers and host community websites that encourage and support meaningful community involvement and that provide citizens with the knowledge they need to make rational decisions about public issues.”

In essence, we want you to use the pages of our newspapers and the community pages at newszap.com to speak to your fellow citizens. Thus, these guidelines. We hope you find them useful.

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2. GETTING YOUR NEWS OUT

Newszap.com allows individuals to post news, photos, calendar events and opinions instantaneously on the Internet. It’s fast and fun!

Here are the features:

A. Post Your News. You can publish your press releases in the Post Your News section of the community’s newszap.com website. The Post Your News section serves as an unedited “bulletin board” for community news. You can post there as often -- and in as much detail, with a photograph -- as you wish. There is also a forum for “regional press releases” if you want to alert people across a wider area of your news. Go to newszap.com, click on your community and then click on Post Your News.

B. Post Your Public Event. You can alert the community to upcoming events by using the Events Calendar at the community’s newszap.com community website. (There is also an option that allows you to post events to a state/regional calendar for wider dissemination.) Go to newszap.com, click on your community and then click on the Events Calendar.

If you’ve posted a news release, event or photos at newszap.com that you’d like the newspaper to consider for publication, please let our editors know by emailing us at the email address in the newspaper.

Or find your local newsroom’s email address by clicking on the state where you live:

Arizona
Delaware
Florida
Maryland

If you prefer, you can email the news item to the newspaper but it won’t be on the Internet. If you have a digital photo, JPEG is the preferred format as it requires smaller electronic files and translates well into color separations.

Users of these newszap.com features can post as much and as often as they choose (within reason).

C. Celebrations. For a modest fee, you can publish notices of weddings, engagements, anniversaries, births and other special occasions in the Publish Your News section of newszap.com. Announcements published through Celebrations at newszap.com will appear online for one year, and they will be printed in one edition of a newspaper you choose. The online listings include guest-books and photo galleries. Go to newszap.com, click on your community and then click on Celebrations.

D. Special Announcements. If you want to guarantee that a news release or announcement is printed in a newspaper, then you can take advantage of the Special Announcements feature under the Publish Your News section on newszap.com.

This is a paid service, which costs $25 for the first 100 words and one photo. Each additional word is 25 cents. You can choose the newspaper where you want your item published. Your announcement will also appear online.

E. Sports Networks. Youth and recreational sports are an important part of every community. Newszap.com provides local youth and adult sports leagues and teams with online sports pages they can call their own.

You will find links on each community home page to your local sports network. Registration is required, to prevent abuse, but once logged on, you can submit stories, scores and photos.

News and photos from the online sports pages are regularly picked up and published in the appropriate community newspaper. >>>

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3. USING NEWSZAP.COM TO PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITE

If your organization has its own website and you want more people to see it, then newszap.com can help. Each community website in Arizona and Florida features links for civic and non-profit organizations, schools, places of worship, and businesses.

To request a free link, simply fill out the Request a Link form at one of the Arizona or Florida newszap.com sites.

If your organization wants to promote its website on one of the Delaware or Maryland newszap.com pages, you can first check to see if your organization is listed in the online Delmarva Yellow Pages. Links to the Delmarva Yellow Pages can be found each community home page.

If you search for your organization and find it listed, then follow the online instructions to “claim your listing”; if you don’t find your organization listed, then follow the instructions to add a listing.

If your organization doesn’t have a website, you can create a simple web page using any one of these online services:

Freewebs

Google apps for your domain

netfirms

OfficeLive

Startlogic

Yahoo! small business

A web page allows a group to easily share information about the organization, meeting times and activities in a matter of minutes.

Another easy way to create a web simple web page, if you are in Delaware or Maryland, is to use an enhanced listing in the Delmarva Yellow Pages. For more information on this option, email adsonline@newszap.com.

Once the web page is created, simply request a free link by filling out the Request a Link form at newszap.com or by visiting the Delmarva Yellow Pages.

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4. WRITING NEWS FOR NEWSZAP.COM AND THE NEWSPAPER

News writing is basically a formula. Follow it and you can’t go wrong!

Your goal is to be understood by the greatest number of people possible. That puts the emphasis on writing in everyday words.

The two most useful writing tips are: 1) the five W’s plus how, and 2) the inverted pyramid.

THE FIVE W’S
The five W’s are who, what, where, when and why. Just make sure every news item answers those questions.

For example:

<<The Anytown Museum will unveil Art of the Plains Indians with a reception on Thursday, April 16. The reception begins at 6 p.m. in the museum at 400 Main St., (name of town). Admission is $10.

The exhibit shows how the folk art of Native Americans has enriched our nation, Museum Director Carol Jones said.>>

There you have it. In four short sentences we have answered who (the Museum), what (reception and exhibit), where (400 Main St., town), when (6 p.m. Thursday), why (to show that Indian art has enriched us) and how (shows us through an exhibit, and we gain admission through a $10 donation).

THE INVERTED PYRAMID
The inverted pyramid simply means putting the five W's at the top of the story, thus

Giving the reader the essential information up front and in one place; allowing people who read only the top of the story to learn the essential facts;
Permitting space-saving editors to cut the story from the bottom for the newspaper without omitting needed facts.

Having used the inverted pyramid, you now are free to add information later in the story, such as background on the museum or details of the exhibit.

That's it. News writing is that simple.

A press release may follow this template:

Date: (Insert date of press release)

To: All local media

Re: (headline of press release/news)

From: (insert name of contact and phone number)

Body of press release

Special Notes: (Insert here any special info like note that photos are attached to the email or available at a website. Note here if the individual in the press release is available for a telephone or local area interview and include name, phone number and email address of person to contact to arrange interview)

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5. SHOOTING PHOTOS

The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words has a lot of merit.

A photograph can often tell a story better than words. More important, pictures of people portray our community. They are our children, friends, neighbors, coworkers shown to the world.

As such, a camera is one of your best friends.

Here are some tips for using it.

* It may sound obvious, but make sure your subjects fit within the viewfinder. Don't cut off parts of their heads or bodies.

* Shoot lots of photos to make sure you'll have at least one really good one. If you do not have an automatic camera, try several different light and speed settings.

* Do not be shy about directing the subjects of your photos. If you want them to shake hands, or display trophies, or move closer together, or remove their sun glasses, tell them so. They'll be glad when they see a good picture in the newspaper.

* Don't be shy II: Get into position to shoot a good picture. If at a live event such as an awards presentation, get into position BEFORE the awards are handed out. If need be, crouch and kneel while you wait.

* Don't be shy III: If you missed the chance for a good photo at a live event, ask the participants to pose for you afterwards.

* While outdoors, try to avoid shooting into a shaded area from bright light. Conversely, do not shoot directly into the sun.

* Use a flash indoors. If your flash detaches from the camera, aim it at the ceiling for some shots. That will reduce the chances of shadows and will eliminate red eyes.

* If you are shooting indoors without a flash, open the settings wide to let in lots of light. Ask everyone to be as still as possible. That includes you. Hold the camera steady to avoid a blurred photo.

6. SHARING YOUR PHOTOS

Once you’ve taken your photos, feel free to post a link to them at Post Your News at newszap.com.

To complete the package for the newspaper, please provide written descriptions of whom and what the photo illustrates. Here are some suggestions:

* Write a caption that gives the full name of each person in the photograph and describes the action involved.

* Identify people from left to right.

* Write in the present tense.

Thus, a caption might read:

"William B. Richardson of Anytown presents a $5,000 check to Carol M. Jones, director of the Anytown Museum of Art. The money was raised by local residents to finance museum programs for school children."

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7. NEWS CHECKLIST

While your newszap postings will be considered for the newspaper, you will want to review these checklist items in following up with a newspaper editor by email or by phone:

* Deadlines. Every newspaper has different deadlines, often for different sections of the paper and for different days of the week. Learn those deadlines and keep to them. That will give editors the best chance to effectively process your news.

* Put the name, e-mail address and telephone number of at least one person to contact for further information. If possible, list two people.

* Use full dates (Thursday April 16, 2010) in your stories to avoid confusion.

* Write a headline for your news. This will help you focus on the most important facts.

* Remember the 5 W's plus how.

* Remember the inverted pyramid.

* Avoid jargon or technical terms. If they must be used, define them.

* Avoid big or obscure words.

* Use simple, everyday words. It worked for Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill and Robert Frost. It will work for you.

* Keep your first sentence short. Do not try to put all the 5 W's into it. A good rule is to keep your first sentence under 30 words. The museum example above is 15 words.

* Try to keep all of your sentences short. Make them simple and declarative. Long sentences with complex clauses make reading a chore and comprehension difficult.

* Use asterisks if you want to detail many items.

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8. PUBLIC ISSUES FORUMS AND OPINIONS PAGES

News from “Post Your News” and “Post Your Public Event” are the items that will most often get in the newspaper.

However, your organization exists for a purpose. Your mission may be to do good in the community, serve a constituency, battle a disease, improve the social fabric, enhance the spiritual well being of your fellow citizens, and make for better government, a more prosperous economy or many other worthy objectives.

At times in the pursuit of your mission, you will want to address the community at large. It may be to alert them to an issue, to educate them, to call them to action, or to debate someone of a differing view.

This is where we invite you to post comments in the Public Issues Forums at newszap.com and to submit "letters to the editor" to the newspaper.

Our editors are always looking for pieces that explain public issues or give differing viewpoints about them. The rules are pretty simple. Write a piece that you think

sheds light on an issue of public importance and post it in the community’s Public Issues Forum.

9. COMMUNITY BLOGS AND BLOGGERS

“Blogs” – short for web logs – have become a popular platform for publishing on the Internet.

“Blogs” typically appear as a series of entries (called “posts”), displayed in reverse-chronological order, like a diary where the most recent entry is always at the top of the page.

Some “bloggers” write about personal events, while others seek a wider audience, in a style reminiscent of newspaper and magazine columnists. Newszap.com provides a platform for “community bloggers,” writers who report, reflect and opine about events, trends and conditions in the local communities covered by our web sites and newspapers.

A “community blogger” might represent a political, civic or non-profit organization and use his or her blog as a way not only to add to the discussion of public events but also to publicize their organization and its purpose and activities.

Anyone interested in writing a newszap.com community blog should email webmaster@newszap.com.

This brings us back to where we began.

Our Key Value #1: to publish purposeful newspapers that encourage and support meaningful community involvement and that provide citizens with the knowledge they need to make rational decisions about public issues."

You are invited to join us in that mission. Indeed, we can't achieve it without you!

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NEWSROOM GUIDELINES

For Independent Newspapers

Newspapers have become big business. In the past, people who were drawn to publishing by a sense of public service owned them. Today, conglomerates whose shares are traded daily on Wall Street own many. Newspapers have become commodities whose ownership is being monopolized by an ever-shrinking number of big corporate "players."

Many of these mega-publishers set the same goal as the owners of shoe factories or insurance companies: to maximize profit for the shareholders. And many are startlingly honest about how to maximize profits in the newspaper business: achieve monopoly status in as many markets as possible.

With a shrinking number of voices setting newspaper standards, the standards are dropping. Marshall McLuhan called television "chewing gum for the mind." Many of today’s publishers seem dedicated to turning newspapers into printed versions of television's colorful and glitzy superficiality.

But, while their numbers may be shrinking, there is still a hearty band of journalists who view the publishing of a newspaper as a public trust. A haven for some of them is a fiercely independent publisher of community newspapers and compansion websites: Independent Newspapers, Inc.

Independent is owned by a non-profit holding company that leaves it uniquely free to pursue its journalistic purposes. What follows are the standards and principles this one small company expects its people to uphold.

I. INDEPENDENT’S JOURNALISM

Independent’s Journalism is purposeful journalism, an issue-oriented approach that provides readers with the information they need to participate in and contribute to community discourse. It values in-depth coverage of issues important to the community, rather than being satisfied with covering the momentary distractions of spot news.

Independent seeks to follow “the high road” in journalism, combining quality reporting and writing with the highest ethical standards. Independent’s Journalists are asked to “aim high,” to produce meaningful, accurate stories, and to carry themselves in a positive manner. There are no rules that can substitute for the good judgment of conscientious and dedicated journalists; the purpose of these guidelines is simply to help set the right tone. Independent's staffers are expected to live up to the philosophies expressed here, and they are judged by how effectively they bring Independent's journalistic philosophies to life in their local community.

Independent also practices journalistic inclusion, opening our pages and newszap.com to our readers to share their opinions, their news and their photos about activities important to them. We welcome readers’ submissions and encourage the posting of news and photos at newszap.com by community groups, school organizations and sports teams.

The secret of Independent’s News is to produce interesting, easy-to-read newspapers with an eclectic mix of issue-oriented stories, opinions and “refrigerator news” with names and faces from the community.

Pledge to our newspaper readers:

• To operate this newspaper as a public trust.

• To help our community become a better place to live and work through our dedication to conscientious journalism.

• To provide the information citizens need to make their own intelligent decisions about public issues.

• To report the news with honesty, accuracy, purposeful neutrality, fairness, objectivity, fearlessness and compassion.

• To use our opinion pages to facilitate community debate, not to promote our own opinions.

• To disclose our own conflicts of interests or potential conflicts to our readers.

• To correct our errors and to give each correction the prominence it deserves.

• To provide a right to reply to those about whom we write.

• To treat people with courtesy, respect and compassion.

INDEPENDENT'S MISSION: Our mission is to provide the information and understanding citizens need to make intelligent decisions about public issues. In doing so, we strive to report the news with honesty, accuracy, fairness, objectivity, fearlessness, and compassion.

PURPOSEFUL NEUTRALITY: Good newspapers build their reputations through purposeful neutrality. People must know that we view our role in the community as that of a public trust. Promotion of any private interest contrary to the broader public interest is not compatible with honest journalism.

We don't take sides in our news coverage, or on our opinion pages. We cover the news straight and try to treat everyone fairly. On the opinion pages, we try to encourage the community to debate public issues fully and openly, and we edit to keep the discussion within the bounds of fair play. We should remind our readers that these are our goals, and ask that they judge our performance accordingly.

OPINION PAGES: Our opinion pages are intended to provide a forum for community discussion. This is different from many other newspaper companies, which use their opinion pages to advance the political views of the newspaper's owners, publisher or editors. We do not quarrel with the right of those other newspapers to use their opinion pages as a platform for their own purposes. But Independent believes our public trust requires that we facilitate community discussion, instead of dominating or stifling it.

INVOLVING PEOPLE: Citizens care about the society around them, but they often feel powerless to influence the flow of events. Many newspapers are part of this problem, as evidenced by the elitist and stuffy opinion pages in many of the nation's newspapers.

Independent's newspapers are finding ways to involve people in our newspapers – and in their society. Through postings to newszap.com and reader submissions, Independent has opened its pages to its readers and broadened the reach of community groups, school organizations and sports teams to the World Wide Web. Our public-issues forums, Speak Out/Sound Off call-in columns, letters and guest commentaries give everyone a voice in their community. We believe this sort of innovation can be a key to revitalizing newspapers everywhere.

Independent believes that our efforts to involve people in public life are not only essential to the future of newspapers but to this country's efforts to maintain a free society. If people don't participate at the grassroots community level, they will lack the understanding and skills necessary to participate effectively at the state, national or international level.

The community newspaper and its companion website provide the essential vehicles for getting people involved at the grassroots of our society.

A PUBLIC TRUST: We are pledged to operate each of our newspapers as a public trust. We believe journalists are the guardians of every citizen's constitutional right to a free press. Therefore, we have no authority to compromise, bargain away, or dishonor the principles underlying the First Amendment.

II. INDEPENDENT’S BACKGROUND

NEWSPAPERS: Independent Newspapers is dedicated to community journalism. Its newspapers in Arizona, Delaware, Florida and Maryland are published for, of and by the people. Independent's newspapers are dedicated to community journalism, with a unique blend of issue-oriented stories, reader submissions and "refrigerator" news and photos.

Independent has extended its mission to the Internet at www.newszap.com.

OWNERSHIP: Independent Newspapers, Inc. has a truly unique ownership -- there's nothing else like it anywhere. Independent itself is a normal company that pays taxes like any other for-profit company. It, in turn, is owned by INI Holdings, a non-stock, non-profit holding company. The holding company was formed in 1991 and became the owner of 100 percent of Independent's stock through a gift from Joe Smyth.

This unique ownership structure was created to ensure the perpetual independence of the company, so that it could always be operated in a spirit of public trust. The holding company's purpose is to exercise, promote and help preserve the principles contained in the First Amendment of the Constitution, primarily by operating newspapers or other means of communication that may fill the information and community forum roles traditionally filled by newspapers. It does this through its ownership of the operating company. The holding company has never had any income, nor is it intended to ever have income; its members have allowed all after-tax profits to be reinvested in its journalistic operations, which was Mr. Smyth's intention when he made the gift.

HISTORY: During U.S. Army service in World War II, Bernard John "Jack" Smyth made the decision that he wanted a more meaningful career than working in the family jewelry store in Renovo, a poor railroad town in Pennsylvania. Although he had no training or experience in the field, he knew newspapers played an important role in a free society and decided that he would become a newspaper person after the war.

After discharge from the Army, Jack purchased his hometown newspaper, the four-page Renovo Daily Record, at that time perhaps the smallest daily in the country. Jack learned the community newspaper business by doing it. In 1952 he sold his hometown paper in order to purchase the Delaware State News in Dover, DE, then a weekly.

In 1969, Jack began having health problems and moved to Arizona. He sold the Delaware State News, by then a five-day daily, to his children (including Joe Smyth, who was then the 26-year-old managing editor). Jack Smyth passed away in 1996 at the age of 80. His autobiography, "From Diamonds to Deadlines," is available from Independent's Company Library.

Joe Smyth bought his siblings' stock in the early 1970s, changed the corporate name to Independent Newspapers, Inc. and positioned the company for expansion. He wanted to ensure that the company would remain independent and dedicated to the practice of journalism as a public trust. Joe was willing to give up his ownership to accomplish the goal. After many years of pursuing his vision, the IRS issued a private ruling that allowed him to form the non-profit holding company in 1991 and transfer 100 percent of the ownership to it.

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