Kathi Simonsen's session, "Skills for Media Growth," will be most useful to you if you bring real world examples to work on.

To gain the maximum benefit from this workshop, please select three accounts that you want to focus on. They should be accounts that have potential to run more ads in your paper. Please ask them the following questions so that you can understand their needs. Get as many answers as you can.

1. What is your target market?
2. Who is on the marketing team? What roles do each play?
3. How do you spend your marketing budget? What is most effective? Least?
4. What market trends are affecting you?
5. What are your company's strengths? Challenges?
6. What is your unique selling position? (or: What separates you from your competition?)
7. How do your customers describe your company?
8. How do you describe yourselves?
9. What are the challenges that you are facing in marketing your product/service?

[posted January 17, 2008]

BY THIS FRIDAY, JAN. 11: If you've got any last-minute questions you'd like to add to the agenda for either "HR Roundtable with an Expert" or "Credit and  Collections Q&A With An Expert," please send them to Mike Naar mnaar@paweekly.com.

Also, please bring case studies from your experience and we can discuss them at the roundtables. [posted January 10, 2008]

BY THIS FRIDAY, JAN. 11: Please submit a complete PDF (cover to back) of your paper to be included in the critique. Please go to www.yousendit.com and send your file, using this interface (100 mb maximum), to annel@newsreview.com. Also, please bring copies of several additional issues to pass around.

BY NEXT FRIDAY, JAN. 18: Please submit two to three print and or web ads that you would like suggestions on how to improve. Please email annel@newsreview.com.

If you have any questions or problems with your files, please contact Anne Lesemann at (916) 498-1234, ext. 1391 or annel@newsreview.com. [posted January 8, 2008]

The Bay Guardian invites you to join them at Element Lounge. Imbibe complimentary, luscious libations while the DJ tantalizes you with musical delights. Saturday, February 2, 2008 at the Element Lounge, 1028 Geary Street, San Francisco. 5-8pm. Free for AAN West attendees. [posted December 27, 2007]

Need a salivating reason to make your AAN West reservations now?

This year's opening night Cocktail Party is being sponsored by one of our newest AAN members, the North Coast Journal from Humboldt County, Calif. The Journal is importing one of its top caterers, Savory Thyme Co., and a truckload of homegrown and brewed products -- right into the heart of San Francisco.

Featured will be cheeses by Cypress Grove Chevre, winner of the prestigious Outstanding Product Line 2007 award the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City. The line includes the international award-winning Humboldt Fog chevre as well as the newly released Truffle Tremor. Nosh on smoked wild salmon and ’shrooms while you sip a Steelhead Pale Ale by Mad River Brewing Co. or the gold medal super Tuscan blend, "il Montaggio," produced and bottled by Fieldbrook Winery.

And how about Humboldt County's most famous homegrown product, the one The Economist magazine says has surpassed grapes as the No. 1 agricultural crop in the state?

You're on your own. But then, it is San Francisco. How hard can it be? [posted November 30, 2007]

AAN West was organized differently this year than it has been in the past, with a group of publishers in northern California doing most of the heavy lifting. The committee, chaired by Deborah Redmond, News & Review, has put together a dynamite staff training conference. So mark your calendar for February 1st and 2nd, 2008!

Redmond would like to thank the AAN West Planning Committee members for all their hard work:
Bradley Zeve, Monterey County Weekly: Meals, Muffins and Micro-Management
Tim Redmond, SF Bay Guardian: Editorial Programs
Mike Naar, Embarcadero Publishing Company: Business Programs
Anne Lesemann, News & Review: Design & Production Programs
Judy Hodgson, North Coast Journal Weekly: Cocktail Party
Sam Chapman, Pacific Sun: Venue Search & Logistics
Jody Colley, East Bay Express: Sales Programs and Sponsorships [posted October 5, 2007]