Photo: Newspapers & Technology
Gina Wilcox, director of digital operations at The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post; Dan Shorter, president of digital media at the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune; and Christine Stewart, manager of digital operations at The Palm Beach Post, at the 2008 NAA Digital Edge Awards breakfast in February.

This story contains bonus video footage featured in the News&Tech SmartEdition at http://newsandtech.newspaperdirect.com

ORLANDO, Fla. — The NAA Digital Media Foundation presented Dan E. Shorter, president of digital media for the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune with the online innovator award.  

The award was given for the dedication to digital innovation. Shorter recently moved to the Star Tribune from The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post where he was the general manager for digital.

Shorter told attendees at the awards breakfast that newspapers need to become multimedia companies and have community readers live on the newspaper sites. Newspapers also need marketing partnerships, whether it is with Yahoo, Google or another firm.

“Newspapers need to look at profit and what drives more pure profit,” he said.  “Online departments don’t have to worry about purchasing large capital items likes presses; overheads are much smaller and our profit centers much larger.”

See our exclusive interview with Dan Shorter where he shares his thoughts on newspaper alliances, social networking and making profits online.
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