OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015
DIGITAL
EO Media Group
redefines newspaper publishing
Local stories with national
interest, such as the Can-
yon Creek Complex fire in
Eastern Oregon in August,
can reach people online
and through social media.
W
hen I give visitors a tour of
our building, they are fas-
cinated with the enlarged news-
paper mastheads on our walls.
Their names capture the history
of our newspaper — from the
19th century Tri-Weekly Astorian
forward.
seven years since our last
Showing visitors our
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digital world is less ro-
made a major gain in dig-
mantic. It comes up when
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I get to a room that hous-
representatives
discov-
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ered that merchants in our
communities have become
I succeeded my father
more comfortable with the
28 years ago, that room
digital world.
contained a mainframe
The sales consultant
computer that served the
who
coached our sales
Steve
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staff,
Mike Blinder, was
Forrester
tronic newsroom system.
very impressed with the
My dad’s death was only 15 years size of The Astorian’s digital audi-
ago, but he would not recognize the ence.
digital landscape in which we operate.
Crindalyn Lyster, our corporate
Some newspaper owners have GLJLWDOPHGLDGLUHFWRUQRWHVWKDW³:H
EHHQ FRQÀLFWHG DERXW WKH GLJLWDO are the leaders in our community on
world. Just last week I read that a digital. No one competes with us in
publisher is unplugging his Internet our markets.”
operations.
e forget how young the Inter-
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board of directors and management
have chosen a measured, incremental The Astorian, our production process
consisted of cutting strips of type and
path into electronic publishing.
pasting them on to the page. Today she
dvertising in our printed products is our corporate digital media director.
and subscription sales remain Based at the Chinook Observer, Lys-
our dominant source of revenue. But ter travels throughout our company.
digital advertising sales are growing. In Salem she has a staff of three in-
The Astorian’s advertising staff re- cluding Travis Clark, Matt Neznanski
cently did a sales blitz. It had been and Debbie Evans. The editor of the
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EO Media Group
News of the Canyon Creek Complex fire spiked traffic on the Blue Mountain Eagle’s Facebook page.
It’s anybody’s guess where
digital is leading publishing
Hermiston Herald*DU\:HVWLVDOVR
part of our digital team.
Digital speeds our production
process. It also accelerates our news
cycles. Digital news delivery makes
our weekly newspapers into dailies,
and it gives our daily papers a 24-
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story breaks in one of our territories,
digital allows us to keep possession
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Associated Press to move big stories
beyond our market boundaries. To-
day our digital sites and social me-
dia do that for us.
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¿UHVWKHBlue Mountain Eagle had a
story of national interest. Through its
website and social media, the Eagle’s
audience grew dramatically. The Ea-
gle’s “likes” on Facebook went from
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story was Aug. 15, when Facebook
posts reached 175,332 people. During
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dabbling in Facebook. Now we use it
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here are digital forces leading
newspaper publishing? Plenty
of consultants are prepared to take our
money to answer that question. Every
week I see invitations to seminars and
workshops on the topic. “Driving Dig-
ital Revenue” is the title of a Novem-
ber conference sponsored by Inland
Newspaper Association.
Everyone is looking for that next
big thing.
I agree with Lyster who says this
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because digital changes every day. It’s
hard to know what that shiny object
will be that sticks.”
— S.A.F
Open forum
Thankful for care
L
ately, I have found myself at the
point of needing to trust the care
of a beloved parent into the hands of
strangers. It is a decision that haunts
most loving families. The fears, anx-
ieties and feelings of failure and guilt
will ring familiar to all in my place.
My self admission that I could no
longer safely meet the needs of my
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sop Care Memory Community. My
heart is so full of gratitude, that it is
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I will.
Firstly, I must recognize the beau-
tiful facility, which was well worth
waiting for. It is bright and sunny,
welcoming and peaceful, expansive
yet secure.
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term. That says a lot more than most
care groups are able to deliver, well
meaning as they are in the beginning.
CCMC has provided that and more.
The individual connection that
each and every staff member has
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all intention of the administration. But
that would not have worked, simply
as a business model or vision without
the people — each person who was
chosen to be in this place at this time.
It is for each of them that I will be
always grateful, and to the wisdom of
the director, who chose them.
You can not know the joy of see-
ing someone who has taken the time
to really know your parent, and show
true affection and concern, until you
have been in our socks.
My hope and prayer for anyone
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needing to ask for help with an aging
parent who has lost the ability to make
some of the basic choices of daily life,
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like I have found at CCMC.
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Thank God.
VICKI TATE
Astoria
revolving door for renters, who offer
little, if any, value to Gearhart, while
stressing community resources.
A predominantly Vacation Rentals
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the very core and nature of a full-time
community, eventually changing it
into a transient resort destination. This
is not a healthy change, and one that
should not be taken lightly. Hopefully
the council will act fairly and respon-
sibly to put the brakes on the prolif-
eration of absentee home ownership.
Please protect the community of
Gearhart by limiting homes for hire.
9,&.,($%5$+$0621
Gearhart
tleman in the audience said he
worked for minimum wage all his
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year if NorthernStar would receive
the approval it was seeking to build a
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wood.
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NorthernStar had advertised it would
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facility, once built, with an average
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ing, soliciting prospective investors,
stated it would hire only half that
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Apparently, the gentleman didn’t
realize that the salary for the staff’s
unskilled employees would be much
Don’t be gullible
less than the average for the entire
ne adage commends, “Hope staff. Therefore, he urged approval
springs eternal.” However, an- for the LNG facility, hoping he would
Limit rentals
other adage warns, “There are two WKHQREWDLQDMREWKHUH²RQH
just want to add another voice of sides to every coin.”
of the delusions NorthernStar shame-
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term rentals in the Gearhart commu- for a better future bolsters our spirits, UXSWF\ LQ ELONLQJ RXU FRXQW\
nity. As a home owner in Gearhart for it also leaves us vulnerable to those RXWRIWKHLWRZHGXV
FORVHWR\HDUV,EHOLHYHWKHIDEULF who beguile and manipulate via false
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and integrity of our small communi- promises. Hope can bring us succor gles promises of “good jobs” for us
ty is at risk when home ownership is or make us suckers.
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solely a commitment to being an ab-
'XULQJ D 6HQ 5RQ :\GHQ WRZQ But if any LNG facility is approved,
sentee landlord. Properties become a KDOOPHHWLQJLQDQROGHUJHQ- it would be built by bringing in pet-
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ro-chemical, cryo, mechanical, elec-
trical, and civil engineers; architects;
pipeline-laying riggers; high-tech
construction contractors with their al-
ready-trained crews; etc. How many
of us have the skills and experience to
compete for those good jobs?
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staff for operating the facility would
consist of highly-compensated exec-
utives and well-compensated special-
ists, again brought in from elsewhere,
with the rest being unskilled laborers.
Those of us who might be hired as
unskilled laborers for an LNG facil-
ity would be paid what little money
unskilled labor routinely fetches, be-
cause workers are paid in accordance
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Unfortunately for too many of us,
unskilled labor is the easiest to re-
cruit; and corporate investors invest
to make money, not to charitably hire
more people than needed, nor pay
higher wages than necessary.
Hope is a good thing. But we need
to shun false promises made by those
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6+(/&$1725
Astoria
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
• CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
• DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Founded in 1873