Roseanne Romero,
Director of Professional Development
Unlimited Coaching Solutions

Ms. Romero is the Director of Professional Development at Unlimited Coaching Solutions in Pittsford, NY. Prior to joining Unlimited Coaching, she was an elementary teacher before working in academic and career development roles for both RIT and George Washington University.

Ms. Romero's presentation, "Put Time on Your Side," examined the five steps to facilitate change, defining goals and priorities, the 12 components to time management and creating an action plan to accomplish these things.

Michael J. Grygiel,
Esq.
McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams, P.C.

Mr. Grygiel is a principal in McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams, P.C. in Albany, NY, and is Chair of the firm's First Amendment/Media Defense Practice Group. He is also primary outside counsel to the New York Newspaper Publishers Association. His practice concentrates in defending print and electronic broadcast media clients.

Mr. Grygiel spoke about NYNPA's 24/7 free legal hotline, as well as several legal issues facing the newspaper advertising industry, including: commercial speech versus non-commercial speech in terms of constitutional protection, defamation concerns, the right to refuse advertising based on content, alcohol-related ads, housing ads and gambling and lottery ads.

Jerome L. Wilson,
Esq.

Mr. Wilson presently serves as outside Counsel to the New York Newspaper Publishers Association. Prior to his work with NYNPA, he served as an attorney with a prominent national law firm and as a New York State Senator and CBS television news commentator. Mr. Wilson has also worked as a classified and display advertising salesman.

Mr. Wilson discussed the millions of dollars being spent on political campaigns, focusing on how little of that goes to newspapers. He zoomed in on the 2006 political races, talked in detail about online campaign ads and the diversity and impact that they offer.

Diane Kennedy,
President
New York Newspaper Publishers Association

Ms. Kennedy is the President of the New York Newspaper Publishers Association in Albany, NY. Prior to that, she was the Association's Director of Governmental Affairs and Communications. She became Chief Executive Officer of the New York Newspaper Advertising Services in 1994. She was also a reporter for The Record in Troy before leaving in 1988 to work for Rensselaer County Executive John Bruno.

Ms. Kennedy provided a New York State legislative update, which included details of the revision of the Freedom of Information Act. She also discussed possible advertising revisions, including changes with public notices.

Jeff Deitz,
VP Newspaper Relations
The Newspaper Network

Mr. Deitz is VP Newspaper Relations for The Newspaper Network in Atlanta, GA. He has over 40 years experience in the newspaper business, from managing advertising sales at a college newspaper to sales and management positions at various newspapers. He has also been involved with Landon Associates, Ocean County Media and the McClatchy Corporation.

Mr. Deitz gave a presentation on negotiating with third party providers. He discussed advertising decisions, the third party pitch and counter measures to it, the field factor and other principles in the process of negotiation.

Bob Curley, Division President
Susan Murad, Vice President and Director of Communications
Citizens Bank

Prior to joining the then Charter One Bank in 1999, Mr. Curly served as Vice Chairman of KeyBank, where he had previously been President of four different banks within that organization. He is also involved in numerous civic and community organizations.

Mr. Curly and Ms. Murad gave an update on the transfer of Charter One to Citizens and gave a brief history of Citizens Bank. They discussed the bank's goals and practices in terms of customers, colleagues and the community.

Rob Marchiony,
Executive Director
League of Women Voters New York State

Mr. Marchiony has been with the League of Women Voters for eight years, the last two as Executive Director. He joined the organization as the coordinator for Balancing Justice, a citizen engagement project. He also convened a statewide citizen discussion on public education financing and organized Students Inside Albany.

Mr. Marchiony discussed the mission of the League as a non-partisan organization. He also laid out strategic initiatives for the 2006 elections, which include a voter's guide, series of articles, issue specific brochures, first vote information for students and statewide debates.

Bob Provost,
Marketing Director
Times Union, Albany

Mr. Provost talked about next year's election, which with the number of offices up for election/re-election, only happens every twelve years. He called for a NYNAME political taskforce that would create a statewide voter awareness campaign, would include ROP and online, the development of youth citizenship skills, development of statewide pricing and would include the cooperation of all newspaper departments. This initiative will be presented to the publishers at the NYNPA Convention in August.