Welcome to the Alabama Press Association
133rd Annual Winter Convention

Feb. 27-29, 2004

Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center
Auburn, Alabama

APA heads to the Plains for 133rd annual Winter Convention
 
Published Thursday, January 22, 2004 11:40 AM CST

    For the first time since 1990, delegates will gather on the Plains on Feb. 27-29 for the 133rd Annual Winter Convention to be held at the Auburn Hotel and Dixon Conference Center. APA will honor the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Saturday evening banquet. The recipients were named earlier in this newsletter.

    The convention will open with a reception at the Olde Auburn Ale House, located in the building that originally housed The Auburn Bulletin.

    Programs for the convention will include a panel of Alabama's top sports writers discussing the changes in sports coverage in recent years and the importance of this segment of news to all newspapers. We'll also hear APA's General Counsel Dennis Bailey review the proposed changes to Alabama's Sunshine Law.

    Speakers include Bob Ingram, columnist, commentator and political analyst with years of experience covering and participating in Alabama politics and Clarke County native Dr. David Mathews, former president of the University of Alabama and president of the Kettering Foundation in Dayton. Ohio.

    Other programs will feature Patsy Speights, president of the Mississippi Press Association and editor and general manager of the Prentiss Headlight in Prentiss, Miss., on the United States Postal Rate Commission's recent visit with two Mississippi newspapers and the results of those visits. Brain Gottlieb from MyPublicNotices.com, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, will discuss the importance of posting newspaper legal notices on a central Web site and you will also see a demonstration on how easy it is to post your legals. And, Jim Rainey and staff from the Opelika-Auburn News will talk about their recent redesign project and how readers reacted to the change.

    Saturday evening will also feature the APA Journalism Foundation Silent Auction to raise money for the grants, scholarships and internships offered each year to promote journalism education and learning experiences for college and high school students. This is the Foundation's only fundraising event each year so make your plans to donate and to participate in the excitement of bidding.


Convention opens with Friday night reception at
Olde Auburn Ale House
 http://www.oldauburnalehouse.com/
 which originally housed
The Auburn Bulletin




Jim and Sherrye Willis, Birmingham Post-Herald


From left, Bill and Jeanetta Keller, Steve Bradley, and Herb White.  Keller and Bradley are former
 APA executive directors.  White is retired director of University Relations at Auburn University.


Former APA executive directors Steve Bradley and Bill Keller
 greet Saturday's luncheon speaker, political commentator Bob Ingram.
A former capital reporter for The Montgomery Advertiser, Ingram
writes a weekly column that appears in a number of Alabama newspapers.


Ben Shurett, 2004-05 APA president, serves as auctioneer at Saturday
night's annual silent auction.  Proceeds from the auction benefit the
APA Journalism Foundation.


Amber Long, print media buyer with the Alabama Press Association,
and Billy Beasley, The Clayton Record.


Former APA president Sam Harvey, editor of The Advertiser-Gleam
in Guntersville, and his sister Mary Harvey Woodward.


Mike Oakley, left, Alabama Power Company, and former APA
president Kim Price, The Wetumpka Herald


Joe and Debbie Thomas, The Tri-City Ledger, Flomaton


David and Diane Moore, The  Arab Tribune


At its 133rd annual winter convention, the Alabama Press Association presented its  Lifetime Achievement Awards to
three newspaper women and men in recogntion of their
outstanding contributions to the newspaper industry
in Alabama and to the communities
in which they live and serve.

The awards were presented at the Saturday evening banquet
on Feb. 28, 2004.

The recipients...


Joel and Ann Smith, The Eufaula Tribune
Gene Hardin, The Greenville Advocate

Lifetime Achievement

From left, Joel and Ann Smith, The Eufaula Tribune, Gene Hardin,
The Greenville Advocate.  With Hardin is his wife, Nonnie.




William E. Hardin Jr., Joel P. Smith, Ann S. Smith APA Lifetime Achievement Award recipients for 2004

APA President Jim Cox announced this week the 2004 recipients of the APA Lifetime Achievement Award to be honored Feb. 28 in Auburn during the winter convention.

The recipients for this year are William E. "Gene" Hardin, Jr. retired publisher of The Greenville Advocate, Joel P. and Ann S. Smith of The Eufaula Tribune. Joel is the publisher of the Tribune, and Ann serves as the associate editor.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was established to honor and recognize outstanding service and accomplishments spanning a career in journalism in Alabama. APA members nominated persons who are living present or former newspaper executives or employees of a newspaper in Alabama and have spent a significant percentage of their newspaper career in Alabama. The selection committee consisted of APA's four officers and two additional board members.

"Gene Hardin, Joel and Ann Smith are very deserving to be recognized as Lifetime Achievement winners," APA President Jim Cox said. "They have spent their entire lives in service to their communities through their newspaper and civic work."

"Gene Hardin has been retired for many years from The Greenville Advocate but at the age of 80 still continues to work for the community as a very busy chairman of the local industrial development board."

"Joel and Ann have managed to pass along much of the day-to-day work at The Eufaula Tribune to their son and current editor Jack but they both are still very much involved at the newspaper and in the community. Joel is probably APA's oldest active president and he and Ann continue to be regulars at conventions and other APA events."

"Their newspaper work and their efforts for the betterment of their communities should be commended. The entire Alabama newspaper family looks forward to saluting these three individuals at our winter meeting in Auburn," Cox added.


Dr. David Mathews, left, and APA president
Jim Cox, publisher of The Clarke County Democrat
in Grove Hill.  Mathews, president of the Kettering
Foundation in Dayton, Ohio, is a native of Grove Hill.

Mathews and his wife, Mary, and Cox and his wife, Suzanne.


Mathews is greeted by Tuskegee News publisher and columnist Paul Davis.
Davis was a reporter at The Tuscaloosa News when Mathews served as
president of the University of Alabama.

By Jim Cox
(From The Clarke County Democrat, March 4, 2004)

   I’ve just concluded a one-year term as president of the Alabama
Press Association, the professional and trade organization that
represents Alabama’s daily and weekly newspapers.
   It was an honor to serve. I’ve been associated with APA ever since I
bought The Democrat (20 years ago this year!) and thought I was familiar
with all of its workings. But sitting in the president’s chair for 12
months fills you in on a lot of details you wouldn’t know otherwise.
   Our office is in Birmingham and we have a great staff. Our executive
director has southwest Alabama ties. Felicia Mason grew up in Pine Hill,
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Mason. He’s mayor of Pine Hill and
operated a grocery store for years.
   I hate to say I used my position as president but that’s what I did
I suppose to promote Clarke County.
  We have two conventions a year, a summer convention and a winter
convention.
I asked Hardy Jackson to speak at the summer convention. Hardy, as you
know, grew up in Grove Hill. He’s a well-known historian and head of the
history department at Jacksonville State University. Hardy has written
several books including a just-released history of the state. He is also
on the editorial page staff at The Anniston Star and writes a regular
column that The Democrat frequently reprints.
    Hardy has a way of making history fun. His topic for our summer
convention, held appropriately at Orange Beach, was the Redneck Riviera,
how the Gulf Coast has changed in the last few decades.
    Needless to say, it was well received.
    Our winter convention was this past weekend in Auburn. I asked
David Mathews, also a Grove Hillian, to speak.
David is CEO and president of the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio,
a “think tank” organization that works on public and civic problems and
issues. He’s a former president of the University of Alabama and a
former cabinet member in the Ford Administration.
   David talked about how there are more than two sides to an issue,
how to promote dialog and how to get things done.
   Admittedly, it was a deep subject for some of the editors and
publishers but I had some who said it prompted them to think. Anytime
you can get a newspaperman to think it’s a good thing.
    Mary Chapman Mathews, also a Grove Hill native, accompanied her
husband to Auburn and we were glad to have her too.
     I laughed when some people asked David if he lived in Dayton. He
stressed that his home is in Grove Hill, on the corner of Oak Street and
Second Avenue; that he just works in Dayton. A long commute, huh?
    But the Mathewses do come “home” to Grove Hill several times each
year.
In introducing David I made note that he was a star player on the Clarke
County High School football team back in the ’50s and a teammate was
Doug Barfield, who served a tenure as Auburn University’s football
coach.
   One or two of our smart aleck newspaper folks (is that an oxymoron?)
joked that they were glad my term was over so they wouldn’t be subjected
to more Clarke County speakers.
    But I also heard more than one comment, “Hey, I didn’t realize so
many well-known and active people came out of little ol’ Grove Hill.”
    That was exactly the response I was looking for.
   And I would have had another Clarke Countian if an 80-plus
Thomasville native hadn’t had such a busy schedule.
   Over six months ago I asked Kathryn Tucker Windham, the noted author
and storyteller, to speak at Saturday’s luncheon. She responded she’d
love to but she had an engagement booked in Huntsville for this past
weekend. I think she stays booked for a year or more ahead. Amazing!
  So Bob Ingram spoke at the luncheon instead. It was good to be able
to sit next to Bob and talk with him. I feel like I know him because
we’ve run his columns for years but we had never really talked.
   He did a great job of analyzing  Alabama’s always crazy political
scene.
   And as some of my fellow newspaper folks pointed out, he is from
Cherokee County, not Clarke. Maybe so, but  he’s sure smart enough to be
a Clarke Countian.
   It’s been a great year!
Jim Cox is editor and publisher of The Clarke County Democrat.




From left:  Carol Pappas, The Daily Home in Talladega, Ferrin Cox, The Elba Clipper,
Ben Shurett, The Fort Payne Times-Journal, Jim Cox, The Clarke
 County Democrat in Grove Hill, Cliff Clements, The Sand Mountain
Reporter in Albertville, and Mike Marshall, The Mobile Register.




Thanks for visiting!

Photos and Web page by
Ed Williams, professor
Department of Communication and Journalism
Auburn University
Author:  "The Press of Alabama:  A History of the Alabama Press Association"

The APA summer convention will be
July 23-25, 2004
Perdido Beach Resort
Gulf Shores, Baldwin County, Ala.