Don Miller

Publisher Owner, Miami Valley Newspapers, Miamisburg, Ohio

First job in news: Ad Sales

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned while working in news?

Integrity - news is news that must be covered unbiased and fairly. We are responsible to the communities we serve to inform them what our local governments are doing.

When you reflect on your career to date, what brings you the greatest sense of accomplishment?

I successfully managed newspapers during some very challenging times.

I was also the youngest publisher at Thomson Newspapers at age 29.

What are your predictions for where news publishing/news media is heading?

Ultimately, we all know we need to go digital eventually, but can we

survive all digital? I think newspapers spent too much emphasis in the past, focusing on the 50% profit margins and not reinvesting in the editorial product. That is our franchise, and the large consolidations by large corporations in the industry have stripped our newspapers of editorial resources that were the foundation of newspapers. I am also concerned that newspapers are sensationalizing headlines to compete with social media, which is another hit to our credibility. Local, Local, Local. We owe it to the communities we serve to hold accountable all the small governing bodies within our communities. We must do a better job if we want to stay relevant. At this point, people will still subscribe and read a printed product if we put something in the newspaper that is relevant and worth reading.