Hi, newspaper folks! Just wanted to drop you a quick line about our West Virginia Press Association’s Convention at this time.
It, indeed, was a great convention, not just because Wheeling’s Oglebay Park Resort is a super place for newspaper meetings, but also because it was a “home grown” assembly, with our own Mountain State’s journalists putting on almost all of the seminars. Truly, we have a lot of talented newspaper people in this state, with keen insights into improving our news reporting, advertising revenues and circulation stats.
For example, my son, Patrick Corcoran, who is a librarian in Welch (county seat of McDowell, the poorest county in the state), attended it to learn more about newswriting, of which he handles to drive up visitation numbers to his public library. By the way, he said of the convention: “Dad, I’ve been coming to these conventions every since I was a little boy, and I’ve never seen so much excitement at them and heard so many new ideas being discussed than at the last two.”
As the outgoing president, that made me proud. In the same vein, I want to thank all of you publishers and editors who have been reading my “President’s Pen” over the past year and supporting our WVPA initiatives. My idea for the regular short take to you was to help us to “communicate better” with each other, especially in explaining our progress being made under executive director Don Smith’s fresh and energetic leadership at our WVPA office in Charleston.
Additionally, another benefit of the President’s Pen is that it helped to promote our WVPA theme for the year — to honor our veterans, via the “Veterans Legacy Project’s” public service advertisements. Most importantly, I’m very happy that new President Perry Nardo wants to continue the yearly WVPA theme initiative. On last Saturday night in his acceptance speech of the association’s presidency, he voiced eloquently and forcefully his theme: “Driving Up Newspaper Revenues.” That should be music to all of our ears in the Newspaper Industry.
Finally, in addition to thanking you for your support, encouragement and well-wishes in my presidency, I’d be extremely gratified if you’d give Perry your full helpfulness in his upcoming WVPA year. Being president isn’t an easy job, but you can make it less difficult for him through your understanding and cooperation.
In concluding, I sincerely hope that you have a great week and weekend, kind newspaper leaders in our state! Keep up the good work!
Sincerely,
David H. Corcoran, Sr.,
Past WVPA President
Publisher-Sr. Editor-Owner,
The Glenville Newspapers
304-462-7309 (Off.)
304-462-4643 (Answering machine active)