Kevin Slimp Online
Kevin Slimp is a favorite speaker and trainer in the publishing world. He can be reached at kevin@kevinslimp.com.

Current Newsletter

When Less is More in Newspapers

Feb 01, 2024 at 06:30 pm by INT

In late January, I had such a good time visiting with the publishers of the Wyoming Press Association at their annual convention. I spoke on a few of my favorite topics: Growi.... Read More

Predicting 2024 for Newspapers

Jan 10, 2024 at 10:45 pm by INT

Making bold predictions is easy. This year, I’ve paid close attention to forecasts by respected sportswriters in national print and online publications to see how my foo.... Read More

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Recent Columns

Readers help compile New Year list

Jan 02, 2018 at 01:24 pm by staff

I suppose any time is the right time to look over your newspaper operation and search for ways to make improvements., but the beginning of the year seems especially appropriat.... Read More

Keeping Up With Styles

Oct 17, 2017 at 03:50 pm by staff

Speeding up your workflow while improving your design in Adobe InDesign At the 21st session of the Newspaper Institute last week, Ed Henninger and I did something we've neve.... Read More

Sharpening Your Focus

Sep 13, 2017 at 03:54 pm by staff

Focus groups can change the way you create your newspaper I guess it comes with experience (that sounds better than "age"). In the "old days" when I visited a newspaper, it wa.... Read More

Online Training Available at Newspaper Academy

Mar 06, 2017 at 04:20 pm by staff

NewspaperAcademy.com features training you need from people you trust. Join Kevin Slimp, Ed Henninger, John Hatcher, Tim Smith and other trusted names in newspaper training fo.... Read More

Meeting Deadline: Learning to Get Along

Jan 27, 2017 at 01:09 pm by staff

A few years ago, I spent several days with a newspaper in Tennessee. They were converting from an editorial workflow based on QuarkXPress to InDesign and asked if I would be o.... Read More

Know When to Fold Them

Nov 21, 2016 at 09:54 am by staff

While in Minnesota last week, I had an assignment similar to assignments I've had many times during the past 20 years: to spend a day with a small community newspaper group, m.... Read More

This Story is About Hamburgers: If you think it's about something else, you are wrong

Nov 21, 2016 at 09:37 am by staff

This story is about hamburgers. Nothing else, just hamburgers. If you think it's about something other than hamburgers, you are mistaken. This story is simply about hamburgers.... Read More

Learning what I can from really smart people: Interviews with experts yield valuable information

Oct 11, 2016 at 08:45 am by staff

I live a charmed life. Last week, I spent four days with nine of the top newspaper experts in the business, along with journalists from 22 states at The Newspaper Institute in.... Read More

Iris Chyi, John Oliver and hundreds of journalists leave me no choice but to write this column

Sep 02, 2016 at 08:14 am by staff

Those of you who write columns for a living know what I'm talking about. This is one of those days when I'm not sure what to write. It's not that I lack subject matter. The op.... Read More

Pressing Issues

Jul 14, 2016 at 11:34 am by staff

If a person hangs around long enough, he's bound to get noticed. That's my theory anyway. When asked why I receive so many requests for help from newspapers, I simply mark it.... Read More

Front Page

Mirror-Exchange Agrees: Paid newspapers are doing just fine, thank you very much

Oct 29, 2014 at 09:14 am by staff

Kelli Bultena, publisher of Tea (SD) Weekly, sent me a link to a column titled, “The Bad News About the News,” in the October 16, 2014 edition of The Brookings Essay. The essa.... Read More

Epoch Times Agrees: Free papers are doing very well, thank you very much

Oct 29, 2014 at 09:02 am by staff

I sometimes write a column twice, for different audiences. This version of my column on Robert Kaiser's essay includes statistics from free newspapers across North America. K.... Read More

Don’t forget about Bridge: One of Adobe’s most useful tools

Oct 01, 2014 at 04:55 pm by staff

Checking my email has produced better than usual results this morning. Besides looking over questions from readers and browsing through the more than 2,000 spam messages I rec.... Read More

PDFs, Lines & Problems: Answering Readers' Questions

Aug 14, 2014 at 05:12 pm by staff

So much to write about, so little space. That’s my dilemma this morning. I’ve had people writing and calling, wanting my thoughts concerning some quotes from well known indu.... Read More

Hmm: Adobe Cloud. Should I or shouldn’t I?

Jul 03, 2014 at 11:45 am by staff

I’ve written a couple of columns related to the Adobe Cloud. Still, I’m stopped several times at every speaking event by publishers wanting to know if they should upgrade. C.... Read More

Convention attendances improves in 2014

Jul 02, 2014 at 06:30 am by staff

A colleague just walked into my office with a big grin on his face. “At the risk of making your head grow any bigger, I thought I’d show this to you.” He was holding a copy.... Read More

Remote office becomes reality for Wisconsin pubs

Jun 20, 2014 at 12:15 pm by staff

I first met Mike Mathes in 2012 when he invited me to visit the North Woods of Wisconsin to speak during an annual retreat for newspaper publishers. The retreat honored Wiscon.... Read More

A Look at Collegiate Newspapers & Programs

May 15, 2014 at 04:03 pm by staff

Getting Real Instead of Being Cool in Collegiate Journalism Programs by Kevin Slimp I asked my new friend, Kevin Schwartz to coauthor a column about the trend of college n.... Read More

Critiquing 10 Free Papers With Ed Henninger

Apr 27, 2014 at 03:38 pm by staff

You should see my physical mailbox at home. Lately it’s been full of packages from newspapers. Sometimes these packages contain a letter with one or two copies of papers. Othe.... Read More

Kevin Agrees With Upton Sinclair

Mar 11, 2014 at 03:56 pm by staff

I don’t remember putting off writing a column as long as this one. I’ve talked to industry experts, polled editors and publishers, and spent the past four days thinking about.... Read More

Adobe Plans to Get Rid of Type 1 Fonts

Apr 30, 2021 at 01:00 pm by INT

Start making plans now about transitioning your Type 1 fonts “Out with the old and in with the new!” We’ve all said it, and the idea of replacing outdated.... Read More

Improving Ad Design to Increase Revenue

Mar 10, 2021 at 12:30 pm by INT

It’s obvious that everyone wants to increase revenue. I own a publishing company and I can attest that 2020 was a terrible year, in terms of revenue. Unless you live in.... Read More

Affinity Publisher Primed to Take Business from InDesign

Mar 09, 2021 at 12:30 pm by INT

It’s been a while since a column has drawn as much response as my November review of Affinity Publisher, the layout application that has so many designers, editors and p.... Read More

Kevin makes His 2021 New Year Predictions

Jan 07, 2021 at 04:19 pm by INT

As I write this column, vaccines are beginning to make their way to first responders, the New Year has begun, and maybe – just maybe – the world is seeing a light.... Read More

Affinity Publisher: Is it ready for prime time?

Nov 17, 2020 at 02:15 pm by INT

A few years back, I received an email from Nebraska publisher Rob Dump about a design application he’d read about named Affinity Publisher. He asked if I thought he migh.... Read More

Why are Some Newspapers Growing? Answers from publishers at growing papers

Nov 05, 2020 at 03:15 pm by INT

Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken (virtually) at five state and regional press association conventions. In all but one, my leadoff topic was “What’s Going.... Read More
Slideshow

Kevin answers questions about colors, photo settings, paragraph styles and ligatures

Jul 06, 2020 at 12:15 pm by INT

So, what do professional speakers do during a pandemic? I can’t speak for all the speakers in the world, but among other things, I’ve been leading a lot of webinar.... Read More

Finding Ways to Generate Revenue

Jun 20, 2020 at 09:15 am by INT

It’s a crazy time for all of us. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Like many of you, I’ve been working out of my home office for six.... Read More

No Bull: What works and what doesn't

Mar 29, 2020 at 05:32 pm by staff

I will remember fall '19 as a season of research. I was involved in two major newspaper studies: one related to Millennials for North Dakota Newspaper Foundation and one to de.... Read More

Affinity Publisher and IDMarkz: One thumbs up, one thumb sideways

Feb 01, 2020 at 05:29 pm by staff

I spent my morning writing about mergers, buyouts, and bankruptcies. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to spend a few minutes on something more fun. For the past three or.... Read More