Symposium offers tips on advertising, news, HR

9/17/19 (Tue)

Symposium offers tips on advertising, news, HR

This year's Witham Symposium on Excellence in Newspapers will feature presentations on advertising, writing and reporting, human relations basics and more.

The annual event sponsored by the North Dakota Newspaper Association Education Foundation will be held Oct. 17-18 at the Bismarck Public Schools Career Academy located on the campus of Bismarck State College.

Ryan Dohrn

Dohrn will present two sessions for those working in advertising sales. One is titled "Why Buy a Newspaper Ad Now?" and the other is "7 Ways to Sell Print and Digital Like a Superstar." Dorhn is the founder of media sales strategy firm Brain Swell Media and the creator of the 360 Ad Sales System taught to over 15,000 ad sales reps in 7 countries.

Bart Pfankuch

The two sessions Pfankuch will present are titled, "The Art of the Interview: How to Get the Goods," and "Probing Profiles: Capturing the Soul of Your Subject." Pfankuch has worked as a reporter and editor for more than 30 years at newspapers and magazines in Wisconsin, Florida and South Dakota. He now serves as content director of South Dakota News Watch.

Melinda Steckler

Steckler is director of human resources for MDU Resources Group, a Fortune 500 company located in Bismarck. She will present a program on HR basics, geared toward newspaper managers who don't have HR backgrounds. She has more than 19 years of human resource experience in corporate and city government roles.

Kevin Slimp

Slimp, known internationally as the newspaper guru, will meet one-on-one with your staff or an individual from your staff. He'll provide feedback on any aspect of your publication you wish to discuss, from ad and page layout to headlines to technology. Bring copies of your newspaper for the discussion.

In conjunction with the symposium, Slimp also is leading a focus group of millennials from around the state. The purpose of the focus group is to learn how 20-somethings access news and journalism, and to understand what might convince them to turn more often to newspapers.

Each year Slimp visits more than 100 publishers to work with their staff and speaks at dozens of conferences internationally.

To register for the Symposium:

Visit our registration page here.

For further information, contact the
NDNA Executive Director,
866-685-8889 or director@ndna.com