Rome Web site wins national recognition
RomeNews-Tribune.com was among newspaper Web sites honored with New Frontier Awards presented by the Inland Press Association.
The News-Tribune's site took second place in General Excellence in the under-20,000-circulation category. First place went to The Globe Gazette in Mason City, Iowa, while the York News-Times in Nebraska took third.
"It's always nice when members of the newspaper industry take notice of the efforts of a small-town paper like the Rome News-Tribune," said Jim Alred, new media director. "We're honored by the award, and we're looking forward to the many innovations planned for our Web sites over the next year."
The nationwide contest honors the best in newspaper online initiatives. It recognizes newspapers' achievement in producing and disseminating news content using online and new media platforms and is open to all Web sites run by U.S. newspapers.
Judges praised romenews-tribune.com's "impressive array of videos from a small newsroom. Innovative job experimenting with features such as interactive documents (browsable PDFs) that have strong reader interest."
The Web site allows the newspaper to offer readers online add-ons to stories in the print edition, such as PDFs of court documents, agendas and other public documents in the News Plus section, as well as multimedia features such as photo galleries, slideshows, audio and video.
The newspaper produced almost 1,000 videos in 2007, and they have proven popular with Web-site visitors.
"Even better than the award is the reception our coverage of the area has received over the last year. With more than a million video views and Web-site traffic more than doubling, our efforts to cover Rome have been viewed by more and more people," Alred said. "I've said it before and continue to say it, this Web site isn't the paper's site. It's the Web site for the community, and winning this award wouldn't be possible if we didn't have a great community to cover."
Alred praised staffers. "This award wouldn't have been possible without the hard work by our newsroom and the tireless efforts of our new media staff," he said.
While the whole newsroom contributes content to the Web site, a core group in the New Media Department maintains the site and produces videos and other multimedia content. In addition to Alred, they are Sarah Tebo, Web editor, Justin Melton, programmer, and Ross McDuffie, multimedia producer, as well as Berry College interns Patricia Dillard, Leslie Houck and Elizabeth Cady.
The Rome News-Tribune is the flagship paper for News Publishing Co., which has its headquarters in Rome. It has seven community newspapers, all with Web sites, in northwest Georgia and Alabama in addition to many niche and specialty publications in all of its markets.
- Rome News-Tribune

Brunswick News hires advertising director
Heath Slapikas has joined The Brunswick News as advertising director, and will head the newspaper's advertising department with responsibility for The News, Golden Isles Magazine, Coastal Illustrated, Coastal Cuisine, www.thebrunswicknews.com and its newest product, The Brunswick News Channel.
"We are excited with the arrival of Heath Slapikas to the News advertising department. His experience and passion for the newspaper industry will be an asset for us and , most importantly, our customers," said C.H. Leavy IV, News president and editor.
Slapikas was previously the regional sales manager for the Savannah Morning News and has also worked in the sales department of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
"Heath has a strong background in terms of training and developing sales teams," Leavy said. "He also brings to The News expertise in developing targeted advertising programs that may involve choices of several different products, whether they are newspapers, magazines or the Internet."
After spending most of his career working larger, corporately owned publications, Slapikas said he welcomes the shift to a fourth-generation family owned business.
"This is an exciting time for me," he said. "When you want to try new tings, the decision-maker is right around the corner. You don't have to jump though all the hoops."
He is also excited about the future of the advertising department at The News and plans to offer clients more options.
"We're working on a couple of new products to market," he said. "We're trying to focus more online in 2008. It's grown over the last year, and we have high expectations for the next year or so."
A native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., Slapikas is a 1995 graduate of the University of Alabama. For 10 years before he joined the world of advertising, he was a professional golfer.
His wife, Liz, is owner of Take Two Consignment Shop in downtown Brunswick. The couple has a 6-year-old daughter, Isabelle.
- The Brunswick News, Lindsey Adkison

Hyatt retires from Ledger-Enquirer
Longtime Columbus Ledger-Enquirer journalist Richard Hyatt retired in February after 35 years.
Hyatt, 63, joined the newspaper as sports editor in 1972, and became a columnist, reporter and editor for the paper over the next three-and-a-half decades. Hyatt will continue to write a twice-weekly freelance column for the paper and will write and report for his own new Web site, www.richardhyattcolumbus.com.
Hyatt also has authored 11 books, including biographies of Jimmy Carter, who Hyatt covered during his rise from nearby Plains farmer Georgia governor to president, former Gov. Zell Miller and former House Speaker Tom Murphy.
- Chuck Williams, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

In other personnel news at Georgia newspapers:
- Penni Harris has joined the newsroom staff of the Waycross Journal-Herald as a general assignment reporter.

- Brenda Pedraza-Vidamour rejoined The Times-Herald of Newnan as a reporter.

- Savannah Morning News sports writers Adam Van Brimmer and Noel Barnidge hae placed in the top 10 in the Associated Press Sports Editors' annual writing contest. Van Brimmer placed in the top 10 in column writing. Barnidge placed in the top 10 in feature writing.