Presenter: Cathy Dee
Time: Friday, June 23 at 11:00
Location: Room 4512

Easy Apps for Your Publication

APPS: Your smartphone is full of them. You used one to make your reservations to CMC ’17. You have to delete your old ones to install new ones. You want them free and you want them easy to use.

Apps are the way we interact our to-do lists, our news and information, our entertainment, even our family and friends. So it makes sense that your publication should have an app to reach out to your readership, right? But is it too expensive, too hard to plan and launch, too difficult to maintain?

This session will pose some questions to help you decide if an app is right for you. We’ll talk about what an app should do for a Catholic newspaper. Finally, we’ll look at the easiest and inexpensive ways to build an app, and get some hands-on experience in creating one for your pub.

Cathy McCabe Dee is Editor for Special Projects for Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly. She has worked as a magazine editor, freelance writer, marketing coordinator, proofreader, and weekly newspaper writer and editor. She’s also taught non-fiction writing at the college level. She was recently asked to be a Community Teaching Assistant for the largest poetry MOOC in the world, ModPo, offered by the University of Pennsylvania through Coursera.com.

Cathy began her career at OSV as a book editor, but later transitioned to website administration. After working as Social Media Editor for several years, her role was expanded to include special projects including author platform and app development. She is an English major/slightly geeky/bookworm who has never seen a gadget she didn’t want to try. A founding member of CPA’s Social Media Committee, Cathy enjoys fast internet, clever tweets and too much Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @CathyDeeOSV and on Instagram @CathyBlogs.

Facilitator: Penny Wiegert, Diocese of Rockford
Panelists: Anne Marie Cox, Mike La Civita, Helen Osman
Time: Friday, June 23 at 11:00
Location: Room 2326

How Did You Handle This?

A panel of Catholic communication professionals will share ideas, tips and war stories about how their organization or diocese handled tough issues, hot topics and sensitive subjects both internally and in the media. Join us to gain ideas, insights and best practices you can put to use right away in your organization–information you can only get from those who walk in similar shoes!

Anne Marie Cox has been with the Diocese of Des Moines for 18 years, the last 15 as the director of communications. Previously, she had worked as a reporter for a wire service and daily newspapers for 10 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Columbia College Chicago and a master’s degree in communication from Purdue University.

Michael La Civita is Communications Director of Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), a human development initiative of the Holy See headquartered in Manhattan. CNEWA addresses issues associated with conflict, injustice, poverty and formation in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, India and Eastern Europe.

La Civita serves as CNEWA’s spokesperson and liaison with the media; oversees the development of the agency’s print and digital publications; and directs social media strategies.

A frequent visitor to the Middle East, he has written widely on many issues regarding the region’s religious affairs, displaced peoples and needs. La Civita has won multiple CPA journalism awards, participates in CPA committees and was elected to as a board member in April.

He is a member of St. Agnes Church in Brooklyn, New York, and serves as parish trustee.

Helen Osman has worked in communications for faith-based organizations since 1984, shortly after she moved to Central Texas and joined the staff of the diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Spirit. She has returned to Austin, after an eight-year hiatus in Washington, DC, where she coordinated communications for the US Catholic bishops and shepherded the visits to the United States of Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 and Pope Francis in 2015. She has served as president, secretary and a board member of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada, and received its highest honor for personal achievement in 2012. Today she provides communications support for international, national and local entities, including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew during the historic pan-Orthodox Council held in June 2016.

Presenter: Kevin Shanley
Time: Friday, June 23 at 11:00
Location: Room 3105

How Religious Publishers Can Build Lasting Ad Sales Relationships

In this session, we will review ways to increase success in selling print and web ads as well as dedicated emails. We will highlight ad sales success stories along with new ad revenue ideas; upselling existing advertisers and improving cash flow. You will also learn about prospecting/marketing, building a prospect database, introductory offers and pricing.

Kevin Shanley is the principal of Shanley and Associates, the leading marketing agency exclusively serving religious publishers. Kevin has worked with over 40 members of the Associated Church Press, Evangelical Press Association, and Catholic Press Association. Shanley and Associates also has a strategic partnership with Cambey and West, one of today’s leading fulfillment agencies also serving religious magazine and newspaper publishers.

Shanley and Associates brings 38 years of marketing experience to the table.

Their services include: fundraising, periodical audience development, fulfillment, digital marketing, and advertising sales. Kevin started his career as the marketing director for Claretian Publications in 1979.

Presenter: Michael W. Higgins
Time: Friday, June 23 at 9:30 am
Location: Grand Salon

BABBLE-ON: THE ROLE OF THE WORD IN A BARRAGE OF WORDS

There has never quite been a time like ours when the centrality of meaning, the credibility of language, the integrity of the word itself, are under regular assault by forces both inside and outside the media.

Alternative facts, false news, counterfactuals, the collapse of the distinction between fiction and historical data, and the rapid popular decline of any belief in the possibility, the reality even, of “truth,” all demonstrate the acute moral urgency for a journalistic ethic committed to value of the word.

For Catholic journalists in particular, and for religious journalists in general, this commitment to the word must be grounded in a commitment to the Word.

No one better argued this case than the monk-poet Thomas Merton in his radio play, The Tower of Babel. He offers a corrective vision for our parlous, chaotic, and disturbing time.

Michael W. Higgins, a native Torontonian, is an author, scholar, Vatican Affairs Specialist for The Globe and Mail, Papal Commentator for the CTV Network, educator, CBC Radio documentarian, columnist, and former senior academic administrator.

He has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of two Canadian Catholic universities, St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo, Ontario, and St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, and as Vice-President for Mission and Catholic Identity at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

He is currently Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought at Sacred Heart University.

He has edited, co-authored and authored scores of books including The Jesuit Mystique, Power and Peril: The Catholic Church at the Crossroads, Heretic Blood: The Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton, The Muted Voice: Religion and the Media, Stalking the Holy: The Pursuit of Saint-Making, Suffer the Children Unto Me: An Open Inquiry Into the Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal, Genius Born of Anguish: The Life and Legacy of Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Unquiet Monk: Thomas Merton’s Questing Faith, Jean Vanier: Logician of the Heart. Several of these books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, many have won awards and been national bestsellers.

A columnist over the years for The Toronto Star, Telegraph-Journal, The Record, and The Catholic Register on media matters, literary issues and Catholicism, he currently has a monthly column on the American Church for the Dublin-based Irish Catholic. He is also a regular contributor to Commonweal (New York), The Literary Review of Canada, and The Tablet (London).

He is the recipient of many awards, including two honorary doctorates, the 2013 Gold Medal for International Radio Documentaries awarded by the New York Festivals, is a Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto, an International Fellow of the Chester Ronning Centre for Religion and Public Life, University of Alberta, and an Affiliate Graduate Professor of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.

He is married to Krystyna, a liturgical musician and writer, and they have four adult children.

Presenter: Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda
Time: Thursday, June 22 at 4:00
Location: Room 4514

Father Stanley Rother, First American Martyr

Father Stanley Rother, first male and first priest born in the U.S. to be approved for beatification, will be declared “blessed” in September. He is the first American martyr. Maria is the author of “The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run: Father Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma,” published by Our Sunday Visitor.

Books will be available for purchase.

María Ruiz Scaperlanda is an award-winning journalist and author. “The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run: Fr. Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma” is her sixth book. In the past 30 years, she has been published broadly, including the New York Times, St. Anthony Messenger, Columbia, Liguorian, Our Sunday Visitor, Sooner Catholic and other diocesan publications.

In addition to the Catholic Press Association, María is a member of the prestigious American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar. In 2016 she received the St. Francis de Sales Award—the highest award given by the Catholic Press Association to an individual, for her “outstanding contributions to Catholic journalism.”

María and her husband of 35 years, Michael, live in Norman, Oklahoma, with their Siberian Husky Diego. They have four adult children, and (so far!) eight grandchildren. María blogs at: Day by Day with Maria

Speakers: Matthew Palmer, Malea Hargett
Time: Thursday, June 22, 4:00
Location: Room 4512

Videos are changing the face of social media. Learn why this is happening and simple steps you can take to make quick, digestible videos for social media that help draw attention to your print and web stories. By the end of this session, you will be convinced you or staffers can make small videos and grow your outlet’s reach.

Matt Palmer is the social media strategist for the U.S. Bishops Conference and executed the social media efforts surrounding Pope Francis’ visit in 2015. That campaign resulted in a Global PR Week Award and a Sabre Innovation Award. Eight years ago, Matt was an NFL and Major League Baseball reporter, but decided to move to the Catholic media world to try something new.

He worked for the Catholic Review in Baltimore for five years and received several Catholic Press Association Awards for blogging and reporting on Millennials. He and his wife Cassandra have two children, Annie and Liam, and they live in Baltimore where they are members of Our Lady of Victory parish.

Presenters: Barry McLoughlin, Laura Peck
Time: Thursday, June 22 at 4:00-5:00 pm
Location: Room 2326

Getting Your Message Across in a Disruptive World

This 3 hour workshop will be presented across two sessions by Barry J. McLoughlin and Laura M. Peck, Senior Partners, TransformLeaders.ca Build your Leadership Brand

At a time of ‘disruption’ in technology, politics and society, how can we get our messages across through the ‘noise’ in the environment, brought about by ‘fake news’, alternative facts, the decline of traditional media and the rise of millions of ‘content creators’?

In this session, Barry and Laura will explore the mindset, strategies and skills necessary to not only navigate this rapidly changing environment, but to chart a course that will help you reach your communications goals.”

Barry J. McLoughlin has over three decades of experience as a media and crisis communications consultant throughout Canada and the United States. A former television writer, producer and broadcaster, Barry is one of North America’s top communications consultants and seminar leaders, working with political leaders, governments and corporations. Barry has conducted numerous seminars for many organizations such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in media training, crisis communications and message development.

Barry has been interviewed extensively on all media platforms including the Washington Post, New York Times, CBC, CTV and Global TV.

He received his Master’s of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1983, where he specialized in the study of the media’s impact on government, business and public policy. Barry is a Fellow of the Master’s of Political Management program at Carleton University.

Barry received a Certificate from Harvard Business School in 2014 for Teaching the Case Study Method.

Twitter: @mclomedia
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BarryJamesMcLoughlin
LinkedIn.com/Barry McLoughlin
Blog: http://wordpress.com/communicatewithpower

Over the past thirty years, Laura M. Peck has conducted thousands of communications skills programs for senior executives, political leaders, and public, private and non-profit organizations throughout North America, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Ukraine and the Caribbean. She has conducted many seminars in media and crisis communications for the United States and Canadian Conferences of Catholic Bishops. Laura had previously been a Political Assistant on Parliament Hill, a teacher and broadcaster.

Laura is frequently asked to appear as a media analyst for radio and television networks, newspapers, social media outlets and numerous publications across North America, including Campaigns and Elections among many others. Laura is a chapter author of ‘Public Speaking in Canada: Building Competencies in Stages,’ published by Oxford University Press.

Laura received a Bachelor of Arts Degree as well as a Bachelor of Education Degree from Dalhousie University. She is a graduate of the Executive Development Program, ‘The Art and Practice of Leadership Development’ at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Laura received a Certificate from the Harvard Business School for Teaching the Case Study Method in 2013 and for the Advanced Program in 2014. Laura is a Fellow in the Masters of Political Management Program at Carleton University.

Twitter: @LauraPeck6; @Trans4mleaders
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LauraPeck
LinkedIn.com/LauraPeck