What is 2FA?

Standard passwords can sometimes be guessed or stolen. 2FA adds a second layer of protection by requiring not just something you know (your password), but also something you have (your phone or email access).

How to Log In with 2FA

Once 2FA is active on your account, the login process will look like this:

1. Enter Credentials: Log in with your username and password as usual.
2. Verify Identity: You will be prompted to enter a 6-digit verification code.
3. Submit: Enter the code from your email or app to gain access to the dashboard.

Your 2FA Options

You can choose the method that best fits your workflow from your user profile:

How to Set Up or Switch Your Method

You can update your security settings at any time:

1. Log into your WordPress dashboard and go to Users > Your Profile.
2. Scroll down to the OHT 2FA Settings section.
3. Select your Preferred 2FA Method from the dropdown menu.
4. If you choose SMS: * Enter your mobile number in the Phone Number field.
   • Note: US numbers do not require +1; our system adds it automatically.
   • By selecting this, you consent to receive security codes via text; message and data rates may apply.
5. If you choose Authenticator App: * A QR code and manual setup code will appear. Scan this with your app. More details are provided in the next section.
6. Click Update Profile at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

Setting Up an Authenticator App

If you choose the Authenticator App option for maximum security, follow these steps to link your device:

• Step 1: On your profile page, select “Authenticator App.” A QR Code and a Text Setup Code will appear on your screen.
• Step 2: Open your preferred app (Google Authenticator, Authy, etc.) on your smartphone.
• Step 3: Tap the “+” icon in the app and select “Scan a QR Code.”
• Step 4: Point your camera at your computer screen to scan the code.
  • Note: If your camera isn’t working, you can manually type in the provided Setup Code instead.
• Step 5: Once the account “[Your Website]: username” appears in your app, enter the current 6-digit code into the confirmation box on your WordPress profile to verify the link.

Pro-Tips

• The 30-Second Rule: Authenticator codes refresh every 30 seconds. If the code is about to expire (usually indicated by a blinking red timer in your app), wait for the next code to ensure it doesn’t “time out” while you’re typing.
• Switching Back: If you ever lose your phone or find the app inconvenient, you can always log back in (using a backup method or admin help) and switch your setting back to Email.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I don’t receive my SMS or Email code?

• Email: Check your “Spam” folder and whitelist @our-hometown.com.
• SMS: Ensure you entered your number correctly without the “+1” prefix. Codes usually arrive within seconds, but network delays can occur.

Which Authenticator apps do you recommend? We recommend Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Authy. All are free and available on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

Will I have to do this every single time I log in? You can check the “Remember this device” box during login. This will keep you authenticated on that specific browser for 30 days, so you won’t need a code every morning.

I’m locked out! What do I do? If you lose access to your phone or email, don’t worry. Please contact the Our-Hometown Support Team at ops@our-hometown.com for further assistance.

NOTE: Never share your 2FA code with anyone. Our-Hometown staff will never ask you for your 6-digit code over the phone or via email.

The post Enhancing Security: A Guide to Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) first appeared on Our-Hometown.

It has already been a busy summer, and I’m not sure summer has officially begun yet (It’s June 1 as I write this). Upon returning from my latest trip – to Pennsylvania – yesterday, I was greeted by a stack of packages from publishers – most containing newspapers to critique – and an email folder with plenty of messages from editors, designers, and publishers. To keep all the newspapers I receive from getting wet, I purchased a waterproof container about the size of a pirate’s treasure chest, which I placed on the porch by my front door. The mail deliverers and UPS drivers have become well acquainted with my box.

What’s on the mind of newspaper folks these days? The answer is “a lot.” Whoever first coined the phrase “newspapers are dead” in the early 2000s apparently never had to go through my email or my box.

Growing Readership

The most common question I receive is, “What can I do to get more readers?” That hasn’t changed in the 30 years I’ve been working with newspapers. We always seem to be looking for a magic potion to make more people want to read our products. I’ve addressed that question many times in these columns, often with a list of ways to grow papers, but most often, the answer comes down to improving the quality of the newspaper.
Quality is a funny thing. It encompasses more than the “look” of a newspaper. It includes writing high-caliber stories that meet the reading desires of potential readers. Quality entails research, such as focus groups, to understand what readers want – and don’t want – in their newspaper. And obviously, the importance of design can’t be overestimated.

Improving the Product

The packages in my front porch box usually contain newspapers to be critiqued. Upgrading the content and design of your newspaper should be at the forefront of growing your paper. That doesn’t mean you have to send your paper to me. This means that your paper should develop a method of critiquing every element of content regularly. But couldn’t I just look at these pages on the screen? Sure, but seriously evaluating a newspaper requires taking notes on the pages. After I critique a page, it generally looks like someone has bled all over it.

Increasing Ad Revenue

Increasing revenue is on everyone’s mind. I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t. I lead a lot of webinars on various topics. There was a time when photo editing or page design classes would be the most popular. These days, sessions related to increasing revenue draw the biggest crowds. I’ve written my share of columns on increasing revenue, but the best way I know of to increase ad sales is to go out and visit more potential advertisers physically. It sounds simplistic, but those of you who have been around the block a few times know it’s true. Don’t worry. If you happen to be signed up for one of my future webinars on increasing ad revenue, I’ll have more to share than “just get out more.” However, if you want to sell more ads, just get out more. It works.

Next up for me? North Carolina, Virginia, then over to see my friends at Arkansas Press Association. When I return home, I imagine the box next to my door will be full.

The post Kevin Slimp: What you want to know first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Most of you know me from my role as a newspaper consultant and “expert” over the past 30 years. You might be surprised to know that I’m also quite involved in the book industry, where my company represents and publishes books for more than 20 best-selling authors. We’ve published approximately 100 books over the past six years.

Today, I had an almost surreal experience as I somehow gathered 14 of our authors, who came from every corner of the U.S., together to sign books for readers at an international event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

As I look at the photo taken earlier today of our group, which has actually become more of a big family, I can’t help but wonder how I became associated with such a talented group of individuals. In retrospect, I realize that a lot of it has to do with making sure to deal with good people who are really smart. One bad author or one bad book could ruin our reputation, and my whole publishing company could come tumbling down.

In my years as a newspaper “expert,” I’ve had quite a few software, hardware, and other companies offer to pay me to promote their products or let them attach my name to their products. I never did because I never wanted anyone to think there was an ulterior motive to the information I provided or the products I recommended.

When Matt Larson, CEO of Our-Hometown, contacted me a couple of years ago about paying for his customers to attend my webinars, he came with no ulterior motive. He asked nothing of me but to allow his customers to attend, and I would bill him directly for their registration fees. There was no product endorsement attached or any other request from Matt. He just wanted to do something good for his customers.

Over time, I had several conversations with Matt and became a big fan of the services he provides his customers. Our-Hometown creates and hosts websites for a lot of newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. Publishers would often mention to me how lucky they were to find Our-Hometown. I would usually hear two things: They made having a top-quality website possible for a community newspaper, and the price was much less than what they had been paying before.

No one asked me to write this column, and no one is paying me to write it. I just appreciate the work Matt and his staff do for community newspapers – going far beyond what’s expected – because of their genuine care and concern for our industry.

I appreciate that Matt and Our-Hometown send so many folks to my webinars, but I appreciate even more that Matt takes such good care of so many of my newspaper friends.

Now you know what I know.

The post Kevin Slimp: A word of appreciation to Our-Hometown first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Almost daily, I hear from longtime readers of my column who write to tell me they’ve recently benefited from something I wrote months or years ago. I suppose it’s why I keep writing these columns after all these years.

Just this morning, I heard from a publisher who wrote that he had begun using an application I wrote about three years ago and was finding it very helpful. Another wrote yesterday to tell me she had followed my advice about holding a focus group made up of community members, some newspaper readers, and some non-readers. She wanted me to know that it was incredibly beneficial to her paper, and they had made several changes based on the results of the focus group.

Recently, I’ve heard from a lot of folks asking for advice related to artificial intelligence. Press association directors have written to ask if I would lead a convention session or webinar on the topic (yes, I plan to offer a webinar on AI soon). I even responded to a request from an industry journal in Australia and Southeast Asia to get my thoughts concerning a photo that had run in a major publication there using AI. Every time I read a story from that part of the world, I’m convinced they have a knack for writing great headlines. The headline for that story was “Tummy tat a croptop giveaway, and Slimp says, ‘Never in news.’”

I realize the use of AI is a fact of life in today’s world. However, the use of artificial intelligence requires much the same scrutiny as was given to photo editing when applications like Photoshop and Photostyle became available almost 40 years ago. 

In the early days of Photoshop, it was almost scary for me to face a crowd of veteran photographers. Even the use of tools we take for granted today, like adjusting levels or sharpening an image, was met with much deliberation among audiences. Longtime photographers, especially from major dailies, often protested that nothing could be adjusted in a photo. If that became the industry standard, my Photoshop classes wouldn’t have lasted very long.
In the same way, we need to be very careful about the way we use AI. It would be simplistic to say that we not use it all. Much of the software we are already using had built-in AI features. However, I am suggesting that we give the use of AI even more scrutiny than we did Photoshop a few decades ago. I agree with writer Kelly McBride that every newspaper needs an ethics policy related to the use of artificial intelligence (poynter.org, March 25, 2024). Kelly’s column includes a starter kit to give newspapers a starting point for addressing the use of AI.

Looking back at the early days of Photoshop, I would emphasize that the use of Photoshop shouldn’t be to improve or alter an image. Instead, the goal was to make the image printed on the page appear as close to the original photo as possible. Knowing that dot gain, ink limits, quality of paper stock, and other variables affected the printed image, photo editing applications offered tools to offset distortions that would otherwise appear on the printed page.

Much has been written about the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace. In our industry, it’s even more crucial that we give the use of AI serious thought before diving in too deep. It would be easy to ignore the issue altogether. That would be naive. On the other hand, it’s easy – especially for those of us who have a bit of “tech nerd” built into our DNA – to get overly excited about the use of AI. Let me caution against both extremes.

We will be using AI in our work. You probably already are. However, be very careful when and how AI is used.

I was invited to speak at a local civic club in Knoxville a couple of weeks ago. They asked me to speak on the topic of artificial intelligence. I learned the audience was larger than usual and noticed that some of the folks brought pads and pens to write notes. Many were business owners, and they obviously had a lot of interest in the topic.

Before I spoke my first word, a hand went up. “Is AI going to put us all out of business?” a man in the third row asked. 

I spoke to the group for about 30 minutes and spoke of the limitations and dangers of AI. I’m relatively sure everyone felt, by the time I finished, that their worlds wouldn’t be crashing in anytime soon from the use of artificial intelligence.

This week, I’m part of an international conference made up of more than 1,000 participants in Charlotte, North Carolina. As attendees come by to meet me, they often tell me they’re from “a little town you’ve never heard of.” In most cases, I’m pleased to tell them, “I’ve visited your town while working with the newspaper.” So far, every person has gone on to tell me how much they loved the community newspaper in their town.
Sometimes we forget how much people love and appreciate us. And sometimes we forget how important – and serious – our work is. Thank you for making a difference.

The post Artificial Intelligence: Make a Plan Before Jumping In Too Deep first appeared on Our-Hometown.

The new Author Profiles feature creates a profile page on the website for each author where visitors can read a short biography and find links for the author’s social media profiles. Importantly, the Author Profile page acts as a hub listing other articles credited to the author, allowing readers to quickly find more content from their favorite writers or columnists.

In addition to the user-facing benefits, the Author Profiles feature also assists with Search Engine Optimization.

Join us on March 28th at 3PM EDT for a feature overview and live demonstration! Registration is free for Our-Hometown customers — just fill out the form below and expect an email invitation on the morning of March 28th!

The post LIVE WEBINAR: Introducing Author Profiles first appeared on Our-Hometown.

If you’re using the online payment gateway Stripe to process payments through your website, please be aware that you may be required to verify or update your business and/or account ownership information in order to continue using Stripe.

We urge you to take a few minutes to login to your Stripe Dashboard and check for any notifications from Stripe requesting this information. In addition to the dashboard notification, you also should have received e-mail correspondence from Stripe at the e-mail address used to create or manage your account.

This is extremely important! If Stripe has requested this information from you, there will be a deadline by which you need to respond. If you miss the deadline, they will disable payouts and eventually disable the ability to collect money from your subscribers altogether.

To be clear, this is a part of Stripe’s standard account auditing process, and is not a result of any kind of security concern.

In most cases, Stripe is just requesting basic information that is missing from the account details, such as names, addresses and phone numbers of the business owners. Occasionally, they may request links to your website’s Privacy Policy and/or Terms of Service pages.

You should receive several e-mail notices from Stripe if they are requesting this information, but to be safe, the easiest way to check is to go directly to your Stripe Dashboard and look for any notifications.

If you have any questions or need any help locating your website’s Privacy Policy or Terms of Service pages, you can reach out to our support team by emailing ops@our-hometown.com at any time.

The post Stripe users: Please check your account status first appeared on Our-Hometown.

We have sad news about a longtime member of the Our Hometown family.

Teri Marie McLaren, beloved mother, grandmother, and friend, after a short and courageous battle with cancer, went to meet Jesus on January 25, 2024.

We all knew Teri as the matriarch at Our Hometown.  She was passionate about her vital role as production manager and brought a positive energy to every interaction.  

Ever since Teri started with us as a production rep, she displayed an amazing work ethic and curiosity to make things better for newspaper publishers.  She used to say that her dad wanted her to be an engineer, and she definitely had the talent.  Instead, she dedicated most of her life to raising and homeschooling six boys, who by all accounts were the center of her universe.  Our Hometown was a second career for her and she brought beautiful wisdom to the company that will be dearly missed. 

Teri’s family will receive friends at the Christopher Mitchell Funeral Homes 16650 Route 31, Holley NY 14470 on Monday January 29, from 3:00-5:00, followed by her funeral service at 5:00pm.  Interment will be in Beechwood Cemetery in Kendall in the spring.  

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project or Disabled Veterans of America.

To share a special memory of Teri, please visit: mitchellfamilyfuneralhomes.com

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Legacy.com obituary

The post In Memory of Teri Marie McLaren first appeared on Our-Hometown.

The following is a guest column from our friend and industry expert, Kevin Slimp!

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 football bowl predictions match up against their predictions. Some of you probably did the same thing.

I was surprised that I correctly predicted the winners of the bowl games at a much higher rate than any of the national sportswriters I followed. There are still a few games remaining in the bowl season, so that could change. For now, however, I’m feeling pretty good about myself.

I think it’s probably easier for someone like me to make predictions like these because I have nothing on the line. I can pick Missouri over Ohio State because I don’t feel any pressure to pick the favorite. Let’s face it: if I’m a respected sportswriter considering picking Ole Miss to beat Penn State, I know I will get hammered if my underdog pick loses. The safe bet is to choose the favorite. Then, if the favorite loses, most readers will understand because they picked the favorite, too.

I’ve made a career out of making good bets on the newspaper business. More times than not, my bets were not popular among “experts,” but I somehow kept picking the right team.

My first bet was long ago, in the early 1990s. I was betting against big players like Adobe and others who were adamant that designing a newspaper in one location and then magically sending it to another location to print using a new technology called a PDF file was a crazy idea. For a lot of reasons, the idea couldn’t work. Thankfully, a few folks placed their bet on my idea, and before long, the PDF file was the standard for printing newspapers and everything else. A few years later, the CEO of Adobe wrote to me, thanking me for possibly saving his company.

Fast-forward a few years, and I found myself once again making unpopular wagers. Most noted “experts” were convinced the printed newspaper was within just a few years of extinction. Even newspaper experts predicted the quick end of the printed word. Many leading journalism schools led the way by proclaiming the newspaper business “dead.” I kept hearing the year 2018 knocked about as the year the final newspaper would turn off its press. I wonder when someone will print a tee shirt with “Kevin was right!” on the back.

A quick Google search just now – searching for headlines from the past week – uncovers a windfall of gloomy predictions, including:

Inroads: The Canadian Journal of Opinion
The Near-Death of Local News

Politico
No Stopping the Newspaper Death Spiral

Whenever I read headlines similar to those, I remember other headlines like this one from 2006:

The Economist
Who Killed the Newspaper?

I’m also reminded of this one from 2009:

Business Insider
The Year the Newspaper Died

Or this one from 2011:

The Guardian
British Newspaper to Die in 2019

Many of you are familiar with the Newspaper Extinction Timeline by Australian-based futurist Ross Dawson. I found the timeline from 2010, predicting that newspapers in the United States would be “insignificant” by 2017. According to the timeline, most other nations’ papers wouldn’t face extinction for another decade or two.

I’m not picking on Dawson or anyone else. Dawson has since backtracked on the extinction date in the U.S. and admitted it was much too early. That doesn’t, however, undo the damage that was done to newspapers who had to explain to their readers and advertisers that they weren’t dying.

Like football bowl predictions, it’s safer to agree with popular opinion than to make unpopular predictions. I suspect it also leads to more invitations to speak at conferences. I get it.

By now, you might be wondering if I will ever get to my point. Get ready. It’s coming now: It is the beginning of a new year. What if we agreed to pay less attention to experts declaring our demise and spend a little more time appreciating what we’ve created and investing in growing our newspapers?

I hear from publishers daily who are investing in the future of their newspapers. They’re investing in staff training, new designs, hardware & software, and marketing. They have not only not given up; they are investing in their futures.

If I were an expert who had predicted the death of newspapers a dozen years ago, I’d probably be saying something like, “I didn’t hit the exact date, but I was right. I was just a few years off.”

That seems like the safest way to keep getting speaking gigs. Thankfully, I’m not too concerned about that these days. So let me suggest you give my idea some consideration. It just might make for a much more enjoyable – as well as profitable – 2024.

The post Kevin Slimp: “Beginning 2024 Right” first appeared on Our-Hometown.

The holiday season is officially in full swing, and we need your help to make sure that we have the resources available to handle any holiday-related requests such as early publishes, late publishes, or extra special sections that need to be posted online between now and the new year.

If you are currently utilizing our PDF to HMTL Extraction Service, please LET US KNOW if there will be any changes to your regular online publishing schedule during the weeks leading up to Christmas and the new year by emailing our support team at ops@our-hometown.com.

Once again, we would appreciate notification if any of the following are true:

• You will publish your edition online early
• You will publish your edition online late
• You will not be publishing an edition online at all
• You will be publishing an additional special section with your paper

If we do not receive advance notice of any schedule changes, it may result in delay of up to 24-hours in getting your edition published online.

*Note: The above scheduling information is only necessary if you are a “Full Service” customer, or in other words, if you rely on our PDF to HTML Extraction Service to update your website.

The post Holiday Scheduling Reminder first appeared on Our-Hometown.

The following is a guest post contributed by our friend and partner, Kevin Slimp!

A funny thing happened to me in Denver a few days ago while I was in town to speak at the Colorado Press Association Convention.

I had just finished my fourth presentation of the weekend. The topic was “Designing a Better Newspaper.” Most of the folks in the room had been around for all four of my sessions, and the time to end the workshop had come and gone.

As people were getting up to leave, a voice spoke up. “Do you have a minute to look at my newspaper and give me some advice?”

I told her I’d gladly sit with her and look over her paper. That’s when the “funny” thing happened. Another person asked, “Could I get you to look over mine, too?”

It was as if someone blew a whistle and told everyone to stop in their tracks. Most of the group began walking back toward their seats.

I asked if anyone else would like me to look over their papers. To make a long story short, all but a few people returned to the room and took out copies of their newspapers.

I invited the group to circle me as I sat at a long table. I spread the newspapers across the table and began critiquing them individually. As I finished one paper, I immediately started critiquing the next paper. Another funny thing: no one left. Everyone stayed to see what I would say about the other papers.

We stayed in that room for nearly 90 minutes until I mentioned they were scheduled to attend a banquet in a few minutes.

As I think back to the phenonium of a group electing to stay late at a workshop, I’m reminded of the similarities between their papers. I repeated much of my advice repeatedly as we looked through the newspapers on the table.

Here are a few of the most common critiques that came up in Denver:

Headlines: Use fewer words and bigger fonts. By using fewer words, it leaves room to use bigger text. Instead of “Rumors of new Amazon distributorship coming to town in November,” I’d suggest something like “Amazon Rumors” in big letters. A subhead underneath the headline could provide more details, “Rumors of distributorship coming to town in November seem to have merit.”

Photos: Fewer small photos should be included with stories. It seemed common for the Denver papers to place three or four smaller images with a front-page story. Because there were so many photos, they drew less attention. In many cases, I suggested a single three or four-column photo to replace the multiple photos with a story.

Page Headings: Cute is out. Consistent is in. Page headings like “Local,” “Agriculture,” and “Features” should have similar looks. As tempting as it is to use a big piece of clipart at the top of the Classified page, don’t do it. Keep the page consistent with the others.

Borders: Yes, have borders around your photos. And get rid of the drop shadows. They (drop shadows) were in five years ago, but not so much now. A thin border, .4 or .5 in width, should do the trick nicely around images. Don’t forget to keep the border inside the frame so it doesn’t stick outside the column.

Color: In my designs and redesigns, you’ll find color in only three places: color photos, ads, and kickers (those short bits of text like “County Commission” above a headline). I rarely include color in the flag (top of the front page) unless it’s in a teaser photo above it. Leave the cute clipart for the high school newspapers and church newsletters.

Above the Fold: Check out the top half of the front page (above the fold). Does it make the reader want to pick up the paper or put it down? The area above the fold should always entice the viewer to pick up the paper.

Everyone laughed as I feigned heart issues while looking over pages. I jokingly uttered, “I’ve seen worse, but I can’t remember when,” a few times. The truth is most of the papers looked pretty good, but there’s almost always a lot we can do to improve the look of our papers. And when our newspapers look better, it encourages people to pick them up and read them. Let’s face it, that’s what it’s all about.

I’ll be leading a publisher’s event in Washington state in a few days. I think I’ll encourage everyone to bring copies of their paper. It just makes my job easier.

The post Critiquing Common Issues first appeared on Our-Hometown.