Kuna Melba News wins three national awards

The Kuna Melba News has won three awards in the National Newspaper Association’s 2010 Better Newspaper Contest, including first place in the prestigious Community Service Award category.
The Kuna Melba News won:
• 3rd place for Best Feature Story, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 2,700
• 1st place for Best Serious Column, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 2,700
• 1st place for Community Service Award, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 6,000.
NNA Contest Chairman Jeff Farren, publisher of the Kendall County Record in Yorkville, IL, congratulated the Kuna Melba News in an award notification e-mail and said “[The] Kuna Melba News has been judged by its peers among other entrants and selected to join the roll of this year’s award-winning newspapers in these national contests. Winners reflect the high quality of publications represented by the association.”
There were 1,990 entries in this year’s Better Newspaper Contest and 359 entries in the Better Newspaper Advertising Contest for a total of 2,349 entries. A total of 634 awards were won by 143 member newspapers in 37 states.
California had the most combined BNC/BNAC wins with 67, followed by Texas with 66 and Wyoming with 59.
Here’s what the judges had to say about the Kuna Melba News entries:
• 3rd Place, Best Feature Story, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 2,700, “Iraqi family now calls Kuna home” (Aug. 26, 2009): “Heart-warming story that is written so very smoothly. Pleasure to read.”
This was a story about an Iraqi family who have children with a condition that causes dwarfism. A Kuna man called to serve in Iraq helped bring the family to Kuna.
• 1st Place, Best Serious Column, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 2,700, “Let's not forget open government,” (Aug. 12, 2009): “This column does a great job of using a personal example to explain the important role of newspapers as watchdogs of government. Well-written.”
This column was about a Kuna City Council meeting at which council members began to discuss an item that was not properly noted on the agenda as a public hearing and the Kuna Melba News spoke up to ensure the council did not make a decision on the matter.
• 1st Place, Community Service Award, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 6,000, “Power line issue,” (April 1, May 20, June 17, June 22, Nov. 18, 2009): “Among all the good entries in this category, the Kuna Melba News stands out because of their aggressive reporting resulting in quantifiable action: the location of a power line got changed.”
This was a series of articles and an editorial written by the Kuna Melba News shedding light on a proposal by Idaho Power to place a massive power line through parts of Kuna.
This year’s awards for the Kuna Melba News follows up last year’s showing of six awards in the 2009 NNA contest.
“What is most satisfying to me is knowing that we are providing our subscribers and readers with some of the best news stories in the country,” said Kuna Melba News editor Scott McIntosh. “Our readers can rest assured that we are delivering a high-quality newspaper, as judged by our peers on a national level.”
Judging was performed primarily by active community newspaper editors and publishers and included retired university journalism professors and retired or former newspaper men and women.
Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association is the voice of America’s community newspapers and the largest newspaper association in the country. The nation’s community papers inform, educate and entertain nearly 150 million readers every week.

Kuna Melba News has seen a flurry of changes in three years

One of the things I disliked about my last job at a large daily metro newspaper was the glacial pace of change. I was surrounded by some of the most talented copy editors, page designers, line editors, photographers and reporters, but their ability to make changes was severely hindered by a culture of focus groups and committees.
One of the things I like about my current job is my ability to quickly make changes that I think will improve the newspaper.
It has been 44 months since Nicola and I bought the Kuna Melba News, and in that time, we have added 21 new features to the paper — that’s one new idea just about every two months. Heck, it would take me two months just to convene a committee at my last job.
Here’s a list of the new things we’ve added to the Kuna Melba News in the past three-and-a-half years: News of Neighbors page, Community Calendar page, The Ricks Report, This is the Life column, Kitchen Table Politics column, Editor’s Notebook, History page, Library page, Recipe of the Week, crossword puzzle, sudoku, Speaking of Faith column, redesigned service directory, weekly building permits, weekly real estate transactions, weekly online poll, weather, business of the month, business spotlight, high school sports coverage and Newspaper Fun children’s activity page.

You can read more about these and other changes in my Editor's Notebook in this week's Kuna Melba News.

Let's not presume that newspapers have suddenly ceased to be effective

I am about to write something that will make hundreds of newspaper editors cringe.
Craigslist works. Yup. You read it right. Craigslist works.
While we’re at it, radio advertising works. Television advertising works. Billboards work. Direct mail works. Social media works. Newspaper advertising works.
I’m particularly partial to that last one.
I am troubled by newspaper editors who viciously defend their medium by disparaging the effects of other media. It only serves to hurt their credibility, and the credibility of our industry, in general. We’re not a bunch of curmudgeonly fogies with ink on our fingers who don’t know how to check our cell phone voicemail.
But I also detest the notion that just because new forms of media work, that must mean that newspapers no longer work. This, too, is simply hyperbole and is wrongheaded in the opposite direction.
Just ask Garnet Green how her ad in the Kuna Melba News worked last week.

Read the rest of this editorial in this week's Kuna Melba News.

Coupons are coming to the Kuna Melba News April 28

Manufacturer coupons are coming to the Kuna Melba News.
A 28-page insert from P&G Brand Saver will be found inside the Kuna Melba News issues on Wednesday, April 28.
“Manufacturer coupons are something our readers and local residents have requested to see in the Kuna Melba News,” said Kuna Melba News publisher Nicola McIntosh. “We are very pleased to provide this added benefit to our readers. If you are a shopper who uses coupons for your regular shopping, you can now turn to us instead of relying solely on a daily newspaper.”
Money-saving coupons are available for dozens of such household brand names as Bounty, Puffs, Charmin, Bounce, Downy and Scope.

Anyone interested in starting a 'Kuna Aethenaeum'?

The concept of a Kuna Aethenaeum has been rattling around in my brain for the past couple of years. I guess I’ll just put it out there and see if there’s an interest in starting a Kuna Aethenaeum.
Generally speaking, an aethenaeum is “a building or room in which books, periodicals, and newspapers are kept for use” or “a literary or scientific association,” according to Merriam Webster Dictionary.
Basically, my definition is that it’s where a bunch of adults come together to learn something just for the sake of learning it.
Here’s my idea for the program, anyway. The Kuna Aethenaeum would meet once a month, say, from 7 to 9 p.m. on the fourth Friday of every month, something like that. Each month, there would be a different topic of interest to its members. We might have a couple of members interested in Japanese pottery or the history of the New York Canal or how to read Shakespeare. (The members would have to have a planning meeting to come up with the topics in advance, based on interest.)
Then, each month, a speaker is invited to come “teach” the class. I think we might have success with a one-hour lecture, then maybe a half-hour of questions and answers, then a half-hour of informal social time where we could talk about what we’ve learned and ask more pointed questions of the speaker. We could set a nominal fee to join, say $5 per meeting, or $60 for the entire year. If we signed up 20 people, we’d have $100 per meeting to buy refreshments and pay the speaker a small fee for his or her time. We would even be able to pay a couple of teenagers to watch children for the two hours.
The Kuna Library Community Room would be a natural location for the aethenaeum, and the program probably could be tied in with the library’s adult education program.
It seems like the program would require a minimal amount of planning and would mostly just require showing up and listening and learning.
Let me know what you think of the idea. Would you have an interest in starting a Kuna Aethenaeum? If so, send me an email, kunamelbanews@aol.com, or just give me a call, 922-3008.

Kuna Easter Egg Hunt is happening this Saturday

Every year around this time, I get inundated with phone calls from people wanting to know when the Kuna Easter Egg Hunt is. Clearly, these people aren't reading the Kuna Melba News, yet they call the Kuna Melba News to find out when the event is. Perhaps I should make callers listen to an ad for El Gallo Giro or Freedom Fitness.
This year, I'm crying uncle. I'm posting the information on our web site and on this blog in the hopes that readers will realize how much information there is in the Kuna Melba News every week. I am also using it as a plea to those folks who don't currently subscribe: You know the information is in the paper, just subscribe. I guarantee that you're going to find something of interest to you more than just once a year when you want to find out when the Easter Egg Hunt is. How about the open house for BMX season in Kuna? When does baseball season start? Is your son or daughter student of the week?
And it's just 28 bucks a YEAR. The whole year. 28 dollars. People spend more than that on one month of cable.
All right, so now that I've made you listen to my ad, here's the info:
The annual Kuna Easter Egg Hunt is happening this Saturday.
Hundreds if not thousands of local residents are expected to gather at 10 a.m., this Saturday, April 3, at the Kuna High School football field to gather thousands of eggs containing hundreds of treats and prizes.

Newspapers are still the best place for legal notices

So much of what newspapers do goes underappreciated by the general public. Perhaps at the top of that long list is publishing public notices.
Government agencies currently are required to publish legal notices for certain actions, such as annexations, passing ordinances, holding public hearings, holding elections, etc. For years, they’ve been required to publish legal notices in newspapers. States generally set the prices for these legal notices on a line-by-line basis, and the prices are the same in all newspapers.
Of course, newspapers receive revenue for these legal notices. Because of this, the public sometimes feels that newspapers defend the publication of legal notices as simply self-serving financially.
However, newspapers, more than any institution in this country, are the greatest defender of the public’s right to know, and I find many of the arguments defending newspaper legal notices as altruistic and pure.
All across the country, there are dozens of efforts to take legal notices out of newspapers and put them online instead. Yes, the free giveaway of news product online has damaged newspapers, cut their circulations and driven more people to get their news and information online. So, one might argue, let’s get with the times and post legal notices online, where it’s free and we can save taxpayer dollars.
First, every single government agency, from cemetery district to the EPA can post every document and legal notice online RIGHT NOW! Why don’t they? Because THEY DON’T HAVE TO! Legal notices force government agencies to tell the public what they’re up to.
You can read more reasons newspapers are still the best way to disseminate legal notices in this week's Kuna Melba News.

Kuna Melba News makes some changes with the New Year

The New Year, for me, has always been a time of thoughtful reflection on the past year and careful consideration of the coming year and the future in general. I’m totally into making New Year’s resolutions and have always felt that the changing of the calendar is as good a time as any for making changes.
Of course, it seems as though we are constantly changing the Kuna Melba News. The newspaper has changed dramatically over the past three years since Nicola and I purchased it in 2006. Most of those changes have been subtle in the moment, almost unnoticeable at the time. We’ve changed the front-page promos several times, we’ve added specialty pages, a calendar, weather, puzzles, color, we even changed the headline font back in 2007 without fanfare. It has all added up, though, to make the Kuna Melba News almost unrecognizable from what it was in 2006.
The coming year will be no different in our desire to change and grow and get better. We picked the New Year to begin some changes immediately.

You can read all about what those changes are and see them for yourself in this week's Kuna Melba News.

Are e-readers the future of newspapers?

This year for Christmas, I bought Nicola a Nook, an electronic book reader from Barnes & Noble. It’s similar to its more popular counterpart, the Kindle, made famous by Oprah. It allows you to download books electronically and read them on a book-like computer screen.
I suppose it may seem odd to have a newspaper editor extol the virtues of such a device, but really, I’m completely on board, and I think these e-readers offer a glimpse of the future of newspapers.
First of all, these e-readers cut down on the cost of publishing. A typical e-book costs around $10, as opposed to $26 or more in a store. Of course, you eliminate the production costs — no paper, no book factory, no covers, no binding or glue. Then you eliminate delivery costs — no trucks, no fuel costs to take the book from the factory to the bookstore in Boise. Then you eliminate the overhead of the stores — the salespeople, the utilities, the rent, etc. Gosh, when you think of it, when you get rid of all those costs, you’d think a book would be practically free.
Now, I say these e-readers offer a glimpse of the future of newspapers. There are a couple of major differences between books and newspapers that keep e-readers unfeasible for the time for newspaper use.

You can read more about my take on e-readers and the future of newspapers in this week's Kuna Melba News.

Job perk: Meeting some great people right here in Kuna

What a great job I have. Just in this week’s issue alone, you can tell I had the opportunity to meet some really fascinating people. This is my job. I get to meet great people, interview them, write down what they have to say, then share it with the community. Unbelievable.
I’ll start with Russell Hayes and the family of Abdul Farhan Salman, the Iraqi family who now live in Kuna because of the efforts of Russell and several others.
Russell is an unassuming person, quiet, humble. He believes in providence and miracles. Well into his 50s, he gets called up for military service in Iraq. Rather than fight his deployment, his wife tells him that perhaps he’s being sent there for a reason. He goes to Iraq, meets a family in need and helps them come to the United States. Russell almost seems to shy away from taking credit, preferring instead to list off the names of all the people who helped.
But, obviously, were it not for Russell, these folks would not be here.
Abdul, himself, is a welcome addition to the city of Kuna. We should be proud to call him neighbor. He is to be considered an American hero. Putting his and his own family’s life at risk, he refused to act as a terrorist and turned down a request to help others kill Americans in Iraq. You hear stories all the time about roadside bombs and suicide bombers. Yet here is someone who refused to go along with one such plot and in the process saved countless untold American lives. And he paid a serious price. He lost a nephew, who was kidnapped and beaten to death for refusing to aid the terrorists.
I had the great good fortune of being invited to lunch at this family’s home a few weeks ago. What an honor I felt to share a meal with this family. I am proud to have them as my neighbors, and I can only hope that their children will go to Crimson Point and perhaps my own sons can become their friends.
And speaking of school, another terrific person I got to meet was Donene Rognlie, the new principal at Hubbard Elementary School.
Donene is just what the Kuna school district needs. She is fired up about teaching, about education, about methods of educating, about helping students learn and about helping teachers teach.
And best of all, she’s from Kuna. She’s a 13-year club member and Kuna High graduate, inspired to teach by one of her Kuna teachers. She has taught in Kuna for the past 12 years. Her first year of teaching was in Melba.
It is heartening to see the Kuna school district recognize internal talent and reward that talent by promoting from within. In fact, Donene told me that she would have waited for a principal opening in Kuna rather than go to Nampa or Meridian. That tells you two things. One, she loves Kuna and doesn’t want to leave, and two, she was still happy teaching and could have continued teaching indefinitely. She wasn’t moving up just for the sake of moving up or getting ahead. Congratulations to Donene and congratulations to the district for moving her up.
This job affords me a tremendous opportunity to meet such a wide range of people, and I think I’ve taken advantage of that opportunity over the past three years. It still amazes me, though, just how many wonderful people can live in one small community.

Big, big news for the Kuna Melba News

This morning, we received some very big and exciting news concerning the Kuna Melba News. We found out today that we won six awards from the 2009 National Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest, including a first place for best feature story. This comes just a couple of months after we won seven awards from the Idaho Press Club, which is a statewide organization. To know that we won awards on a national level, as well, is extremely gratifying. We'll have details in next week's issue and we'll post them on our web site too.

The world would be a better place if everyone just read their local newspaper

The world would be a better place if everyone read their local newspaper. I firmly believe this. I suppose I’d be in the wrong business if I didn’t believe in it passionately. There are so many things in your local newspaper that you need to know. Someone called us up last month, asking if there had been an election in the city of Kuna. We informed him that there was a Kuna school district election on a two-year, $1.1 million per year supplemental levy to make up for a projected shortfall in funding from the state. The gentleman who called said he thought the district was trying to keep the election a secret so that no one would know about it. We had to point out that it had been in the Kuna Melba News nearly a dozen times and was on the front page as the lead story four times before the election. To the gentleman’s great credit, he signed up for a subscription so he could be more informed.
What I ask of you, our loyal readers, is to help us spread the word. Tell your neighbors about the Kuna Melba News, tell your friends. Let them know all of the important stories that they need to read in the newspaper. When they say they knew nothing about the supplemental levy or the upcoming City Council election, tell them they should subscribe to the Kuna Melba News.
You’ll be helping to make the world a better place.

Kuna Melba News wins seven awards at Idaho Press Club awards ceremony

The Kuna Melba News won seven awards tonight at the annual Idaho Press Club awards ceremony, including three first place winners, two second places, a third place and an honorable mention.
Here are the winners:
1st: Best series for "Will Best Bath smell?" a three-part series on the potential impact of Best Bath in Kuna.
1st: Best sports feature for "Thousands donate toward Kuna's first wheelchair racer," a story about Matt LaManna, who has cerebral palsy and received a racing wheelchair through donations from the community.
1st: Best religion feature for "Grieving and healing at Kuna First Baptist Church," a story about the passing of Julie Piper, the simultaneous building of the new Kuna Baptist Church and the journey of the Rev. Scott Piper, who is now raising their seven girls with the help of the community.
2nd: Web site general excellence for www.kunamelba.com.
2nd: Business reporting for "Pazzles gets shot on national stage," for a story about Kuna's Pazzles' appearance on the Home Shopping Network.
3rd: Watchdog/investigative for "What is the tax impact of a big-box store?" which uncovered that the city of Kuna likely would reap only about $15,000 in added tax revenue from a big-box store.
Honorable mention: Business reporting for "Indian Creek named Winery of the Year," for a story about the history of Kuna's Indian Creek Winery and how the business is now being passed on to the second generation.

Melba Community Auction going well

We just got back from the 60th annual Melba Community Auction, where things were moving right along nicely. Organizers tell me the donations were down quite a bit from last year, but folks were still bidding well this year. One of the items that Nicola and I bought at the auction was a homemade huckleberry pie made by Madge Wylie. The huckleberries were hand-picked by her son up at Priest Lake. I'm not ashamed to admit that as soon as we got home, we dug in (at right). Delicious. Great job, Madge. No indigestion, no need for the antacid. We had to leave the auction a little early, so we missed how the classic car and pickup truck went, but the handmade Old World-style hand-carved wooden cane by Eugene Lee went for $250 to Norm and Kathy Alder. I bid unsuccessfully on a signed softball from the state champions. That eventually went for $100. Nicola and I finally successfully bid on a beautiful quilt. This one was handmade and donated by Michelle Van Schoiack and machine quilted by Homestead Quilts. We've bid on quilts many times before, including last year's Kuna History quilt by Cheryl Stubbs, but we've never come out on top. So we're pretty happy we finally took one home. Lute Greenfield's handmade metal sculpture of a moose went for $255, and a handmade birdhouse went for $250. We'll keep you updated on how the auction did and what it means to the Kuna Auction, in next week's Kuna Melba News.

Remembering what a big deal a mention in your local paper is

We received an email the other day from a reader who had submitted a schools-related story and photos, which I ran a few weeks ago. She wrote, "They really enjoyed seeing themselves in the paper last time. I brought each of them a copy of the paper to school, and their desks were immediately surrounded by students. The mile-wide smiles they had on their faces lasted most of the day. One of the boys said "Geez, my mom sent a copy of the paper to EVERYBODY (dripping with exasperation) we know." I think often as I get older, I forget what a big deal something like a mention in the local paper is. So thanks for printing the story, it meant a lot."
I think a lot of people have forgotten what a big deal something like a mention in the local paper is. We still think the local paper is the best way to connect with your community. Keep sending us your submissions, and we'll keep printing them.

Now is the time to be aggressive, not timid

What do you do when you’re a small business in a recession?
Is the answer to cut back, hide and adopt a bunker mentality until the storm is over?
I don’t think so. When the storm is over and you come out of your bunker, you may find out that no one remembers who you are.
Of course, this is a good opportunity to cut out any unnecessary expenses and focus your spending so that your business is as efficient as it can possibly be.
But now is not the time to hide. If anything, in an environment of shrinking spending dollars, it’s even more important to get out there and fight for those dollars.
According to a McGraw-Hill Research study looking at 600 companies from 1980 to 1985, businesses that chose to maintain or raise their level of advertising expenditures during the 1981 and 1982 recession had significantly higher sales after the economy recovered. Companies that advertised aggressively during the recession had sales 256 percent higher than those that did not continue to advertise.
Yeah, yeah, we’re just saying that because advertising is our business. But here’s a shocker: We actually believe it. Of course, we wouldn’t have gotten into the business if we didn’t believe in it. Anyone who’s talked to us about the newspaper business and the value of advertising in your local hometown newspaper knows how passionately we believe in it. But we’re not just talking the talk. We’re walking the walk. We’re putting our money where our mouth is.
Starting today, the Kuna Melba News will have billboards along Meridian Road, next to City Hall and at Fairview and Cloverdale roads. In addition, we're launching a radio ad campaign on Mix 106, and this month, we're mailing copies of the Kuna Melba News to every household in the Kuna school district in an effort to boost our circulation. In conjunction with that, we're giving our advertisers deep discounts for the entire month, helping them reach out to every household in Kuna for a very low price. Then in March, we're launching the Kuna Melba News Roundup, a free newspaper that will go to every household in the Kuna and Melba zip codes.
We're being aggressive now because after the storm is over, we're looking forward to sunny skies.

Kuna Melba News — finally — adds a history column

This week, the Kuna Melba News is very excited to present yet another new feature: Looking Back, a new history column that looks back into Kuna and Melba’s history.
Over the past two years, we’ve been working very hard to respond to reader suggestions for new features: community calendar, weather, puzzles, recipe of the week. We’ve also added columns, high school sports coverage, a News of Neighbors page, a library page. We’ve also listened to reader suggestions about the police blotter. As you may have noticed, the last couple of weeks, we’ve been taking out and digesting the routine calls, such as traffic stops, security checks and property checks. It has shortened the blotter considerably, making it easier to read and allowing for more space for explanations of specific incidents.
A history column is yet another step in making us a better newspaper. Making the history column happen was perhaps more difficult than I anticipated. The only complete record, that I know of, of the Kuna Melba News and its predecessors, the Kuna Enterprise and Kuna Herald, are on rolls and rolls of microfilm at the Idaho State Historical Society on Old Penitentiary Road in Boise. What we’ve done is ordered the roll of microfilm of the Kuna Herald from 1959 — 50 years ago — and had it delivered through the Kuna Library to Kuna. With the help of the Kuna Melba News’ customer service representative Tami McCraw, we’ve been looking through the microfilm at the Kuna Stake Center of the LDS Church on West Kuna Road.
So our focus right now is on the stories and issues affecting Kuna and Melba 50 years ago. Fortunately, the Kuna Herald in 1959 also ran a “Looking Back” column that looked back at stories from 1949, 1939, 1929 and 1919, so we’ve picked those up, as well to look back 60, 70, 80 and 90 years ago.
I hope you enjoy the new feature. Let me know what you think.

Kuna Melba News story on creekside memorial in Kuna generates responses

This month’s story in the Kuna Melba News on the creekside memorial to Vernon Bowers generated a lot of comments, both online and mailed to the newspaper. Most people seem to think the city should let the family keep the memorial where it is. The city has told the family they have to remove the memorial by the end of the year.
I received a phone call from a local resident who walks the Greenbelt often. She said the memorial does seem out of place, but she respects the family’s desire to keep a memorial to Vernon. She suggests a compromise: Give the family a six-month reprieve and allow them to raise money for a tree and stone memorial similar to others in the park.
I think that sounds like a pretty reasonable suggestion. A tree and stone memorial near the current memorial would look nice and honor Vernon’s memory.

Annual Kuna Melba News Christmas party

This weekend, Nicola and I held the annual Kuna Melba News Christmas party, to which we invite all of the good folks who regularly write for the Kuna Melba News. This year, we held the party at our house and had it catered by Fiesta Guadalajara, who did a fantastic job. Great food, very professional. Those in attendance included: Tami McCraw, our new marketing and customer service representative, and her husband, Jake, and their two children; Madge Wylie, journalist, author, all-around writer extraordinaire; Marty Nelson, Melba senior center coordinator who writes the weekly Melba seniors column; Nancy Simper, This is the Life columnist and now book author, along with three of her daughters; Cheryl McCord, Kuna Farmers Market coordinator who writes the weekly Farmers Market column, her husband, Bill Clark, and Bill's mom, Tina, from Michigan; and columnist Zeke Corder and his significant other, Shelly. Kuna seniors columnist Ernie Sandberg and columnist Steven Ricks couldn't join us, but we were thinking of them. I pointed out to the group that 2008 was a year of significant events for our little group. Madge Wylie won an Esto Perpetua Award for her documenting history, Nancy Simper has published her first book, This is the Life, a collection of columns from her first year in the Kuna Melba News, and the Kuna Farmers Market was bigger than ever this year. Personally, I had a great time hanging out with all these people with whom I communicate usually only by email once a week. I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to work with such a terrific group of people.