Obit - David Lendt

Columbia
David L. Lendt, 71, Columbia, director of university relations for the University of Missouri System from 1989 until his retirement in 2000, died April 15, 2008, of acute myelogenous leukemia.
Mr. Lendt was a good friend of Missouri Press Association and attended many of its functions. For the University he served as chair of the Public Relations Council, comprised of the chief public information officers from each of the campuses and University Extension.
Mr. Lendt is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, Alice; two daughters,
a son, four grandchildren and a sister.

Obit - Robert L. Hale

Kansas City
Robert Lee Hale, 93, former superintendent of composing operations for The Kansas City Star, died on April 6, 2008, in a care center in Lenexa, Kan.
Mr. Hale worked for The Star for 35 years. He began his newspaper career before World War II at the old Kansas City Journal Post.
Mr. Hale’s wife of over 55 years, Eva, is deceased. There are no close relatives.

Obit - Clarissa Start

St. Louis
Clarissa Start, 91, who wrote about gardening and everyday life during 64 years with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, died April 9, 2008, in a nursing home in Woodbridge, Va.
Mrs. Start was best known locally for her columns “The Little Woman” and later “The Happy Gardener.” She wrote 10 books, including “Never Underestimate the Little Woman.” Her book that sold best was “When You’re a Widow,” which she wrote from personal experience.
It was serialized in Ladies Home Journal.
Ms. Start graduated at age 19 from the Missouri School of Journalism and started at the Post-Dispatch in 1938. She retired from the paper in 1972 but wrote her gardening column for 30 more years.
She is survived by a son.

Obit - Phil Norman

Columbia
John Philip Norman, 91, a retired professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism, died Feb. 28, 2008.
Mr. Norman grew up in Iowa, attended the University of Iowa and started his journalism career in advertising for what is now Sunbeam Co. He bought and ran two weekly newspapers in central Wisconsin before joining the J School faculty in 1955.
Before retiring in 1980, Mr. Norman spent a year as a consultant to the Korean Herald, an English language newspaper in Seoul, South Korea. He also worked as Missouri/Kansas manager for National Election Studies providing national election results for three major networks and two wire services.
Mr. Norman leaves his wife, Jeanette; two sons, two daughters and four grandchildren.

Obit - Phyllis Wright

St. Joseph
Phyllis Wright, 80, who joined the St. Joseph News-Press at age 17, died of Alzheimer’s disease on March 13, 2008.
Mrs. Wright took time off from 1947 to 1962 to raise her three children, then rejoined the newspaper as editor of the society page. She remained there until 1993. For years she wrote the Brevities column filled with chicken dinner news, family visits, vacations and hospital patients.

Obit - Joseph Cullen

Kansas City
Joseph Thomas Cullen, 81, an employee of The Kansas City Star for 25 years, died March 24, 2008, of complications of Alzheimer’s.
After leaving The Star’s national advertising department, Mr. Cullen operated Business Opportunities Unlimited for 10 years before illness forced him to retire.
Mr. Cullen is survived by Mary, his wife of 53 years; two daughters, a son, seven grandchildren, two great-grandsons, five sisters and a brother.

Obit - ElFreda Cox

Bloomfield
ElFreda Cox, 52, Dexter, reporter for the North Stoddard Countian in Bloomfield, died of cancer and complications on March 24, 2008.
Miss Cox lived in Dexter but was deeply involved with Bloomfield. She was the founding president of the Bloomfield Lions Club. The Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce named her Woman of the Year in 2005, and she received many other awards of appreciation and service from the community.
Miss Cox worked for 12 years as a reporter for the Puxico Press before joining the Bloomfield weekly.
The Lions Club and other local organizations held a fund-raiser in early March to help with Miss Cox’s medical bills and household expenses.

Obit - Howard Turtle

Overland Park, Kan.
Howard Turtle, 95, Overland Park, a longtime Kansas City Star editor who was the first editor of “Star Magazine,” died March 16, 2008.
Mr. Turtle worked for The Star for about 40 years, interrupted by service in the Army during World War II. He served as a medic in five European campaigns, including Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge.
His work appeared in national magazines such as Reader’s Digest, The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.
After retiring Mr. Turtle devoted more time to music. He played trumpet and cornet. He was part of the Junkyard Jazz Band in Lawrence, Kan.
Survivors include a daughter, a son and five grandchildren.

Print newspaper ads drive online traffic, purchases

According to the Newspaper Association of America, new consumer research conducted by Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo and commissioned by Google, among people who research products and services after seeing them advertised in newspapers, 67 percent use the Internet to find more information, and nearly 70 percent of them actually make a purchase following their additional research.
John F. Sturm, NAA president and CEO, said “…newspaper advertising is incredibly effective in motivating consumers to make a purchase. This new study… demonstrates that print ads also drive people to  conduct additional product research online.”
Among internet-using newspaper readers
• 56% researched or purchased at least one product they saw advertised in the newspaper in the previous month
• 44% researched at least one product. 48% of them visited a store; 23% called a store, 23% asked a friend.
• 42% of respondents purchased at least one product
• 47% of those who responded to a newspaper ad by going online went directly to a URL they
saw in the advertisement:
• 31% chose to use a search engine
• 72% of those who responded to a newspaper ad by searching Google are likely to make a purchase
• 71% visiting a store are likely to make a purchase
Spencer Spinnell, head of Google’s Print Ads program, said, “The results of the study confirm… (that) consumers’ exposure to advertising messages across mediums influences their subsequent research and purchasing behavior… Newspaper advertisements drive readers to the Web, where they search, find and obtain products… “
In addition, the use of newspapers and the Internet reinforces consumer confidence:
• 48 percent of respondents said that seeing a product in the newspaper after seeing it online
would make them trust the product more and be more likely to purchase
• 52 percent of that group said they would be more likely to purchase the product
Overall, nearly 30 percent of Internet-using newspaper readers went online to research at least one product that they saw in the newspaper (on average, they researched nine). The majority of respondents, however, noted that newspapers are more useful than the Internet for:
• Learning about promotions - 68% rated it very useful (42% said so for the internet)
• Deciding where to buy (54% vs. 45%) and when to buy (43% vs. 30%)
For more information, please go to the NAA Web site (naa.org).

—-Arkansas Publisher Weekly

Mtn. View publisher featured in Pub Aux

Tianna Brooks and the Mountain View Standard News were the focus of a feature story in the April issue of Publishers’ Auxiliary, a publication of the National Newspaper Association.
Brooks’ family bought the Howell County weekly in 2001 and put Tianna, 28, in charge in 2003.
Brooks’ background is as a teacher. She taught fifth and sixth grade language arts before taking on the newspaper and worked with her father in real estate.
Brooks’ two brothers each operates a business, one a heating and air conditioning firm, the other a carpet company. Those two companies and the newspaper are housed in a family-owned building.
“I have developed a great respect for journalism and the newspaper’s watchdog role,” Brooks told Publishers’ Auxiliary.
She has learned by doing and by attending training programs sponsored by the National Newspaper Association and Missouri Press Association. She went on the NNA On the Road tour of Missouri newspapers in 2005.
Missouri Press inspired her to begin a Newspapers In Education program, and she appreciates MPA’s legal hotline. Whenever she gets bogged down she just heads off to an MPA meeting to get a new dose of education and inspiration, she said.
Brooks was elected president of Ozark Press Association at that group’s March 28 annual meeting in Point Lookout.