Kudos

We recently completed a statewide project that resulted in the placement of hundreds of safe medicine disposal bins in counties with significant levels of opioid abuse and overdose deaths. These new bins provide residents with greater options and opportunities to get rid of unwanted medicines from their homes. N&R Publications helped us by creating multiple customized, informative, and timely newspaper inserts that helped us share details of the new med bins with residents across the state. Without N&R Publications’ help, our ability to inform residents would have been incredibly limited in reach. We appreciate N&R Publication’s work to help us develop the multilingual educational inserts and to help us teach the masses regarding use of and the importance of safe medicine disposal bins to the health of individuals and our communities.

I don’t know that anything could have gone better. The entire process was engaging, supportive, and really felt like a partnership. Changes were made, as needed, throughout so the flexibility and close connection were critical. It all added up to us (jointly) creating an incredible publication that I feel truly shares our story and the impact of our services.

Our third publication, which highlighted the Disabled Veterans Property Tax Exception (DVE), resulted in a 27% increase in DVE applications, for a total of 1,650 applications. This was more than all California Counties combined. San Diego County veterans were able to save $10 million in property taxes. BZ to N&R Publications!!

Los Angeles County Child Support Services is one of the largest locally operated programs in the nation. With a caseload at times hovering over a quarter of a million, and with cases in all 50 states, four territories and 39 foreign countries, communication was a huge challenge. We had a robust community engagement program and staff, but events were episodic. We also had a significant social media campaign and presence, but it still wasn’t adequate to coverage the brand range of clientele we were responsible for. When first approached by Sherri and Jeff, my executive team were somewhat skeptical about newspaper people telling our story. Oh how wrong we were. Taking a journalistic approach to telling ‘our story’ - actually our ‘stories’ was the best investment we ever made in the communication realm. This novel approach in the child support program is one that I highly recommend. I am so proud of the work that Jeff and Sherri and their team did for us.

We were thrilled with the final ‘Power of Inclusion’ insert that was distributed across major Nebraska newspapers in late July. The Council continues to share the electronic version on our website, through email blasts, on social media, and through platforms that our partners utilize as a powerful outreach tool.

The Council was amazed at how smoothly the development process unfolded, thanks in part to the professional team at N&R Publications. They handled all of the logistics from beginning to end, starting with the creation of the publication and culminating with distribution which involved printing, delivery and inserting 151,300 copies into ten newspapers across Nebraska. N&R provided excellent customer service, and Council staff appreciated their willingness to allow feedback and changes throughout the editing process.

The Council is really proud of the publication and the messaging it shares to Nebraskan citizens who may not be familiar with the Council and the important advocacy and developmental disability systems change work we facilitate. More importantly, we are confident that the insert will encourage citizens to support inclusion for people who experience developmental disabilities in their communities.

The members of the California Compost Coalition stepped up and turned towards the News & Review Publications to produce an 8-page circular for distribution. They specialize in writing stories about people that help readers connect emotionally with the work being done, and they know how to take a complex story about ‘organics’ and make it easy to understand in terms of climate change mitigation with compelling articles, impactful photos and award-winning design.

I want to share with you the story of an event that resulted from our rural newspaper insert project with News & Review.

After the inserts ran in six newspapers, our public policy director, Lauren Pearcy, hand delivered copies to legislators representing those areas. During one of these visits, Senator Mark Pody suggested a disability resource event in his district. We worked closely with his office to schedule the event in rural Smithville, Tenn. Our Council chair is a Smithville native and provided extensive on-the-ground support.

The day of the event, January 24, the room was packed with the county and city mayors, the town librarian, the fire chief and sheriff, many people with disabilities and their support professionals, family members, regional Vocational Rehabilitation staff, the district special education supervisor, and other interested community members.

Senator Pody opened the event, and Lauren Pearcy gave a brief overview of the Council and key disability resources. Then we moved into the ‘community conversation’ part of the event, which involved breaking attendees into smaller groups and giving them an opportunity to discuss open-ended questions about local needs and resources. These conversations and connections led to several concrete outcomes, including:

• A disability family support group formed from those in attendance and has since met several times.
• The owner of the local recreation facility (which includes the public pool and golf course) has added special needs activities at her facility.
• Family members who had faced challenges connecting with Vocational Rehabilitation services were able to connect directly with VR regional leadership.
• The Council’s materials, such as our magazine and informational brochures, are now being shared at key locations in Smithville, including the library and local churches and doctor’s offices.

People with disabilities in Smithville are seeing tangible change as a result of this meeting, which came out of our work with you. I want to thank N&R again for helping us make this a truly successful project.

Last year, we contracted with N&R Publications to create a newspaper insert for the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council highlighting the work of our organization and some of the wonderful people with Doe. N&R shepherded our Council through the entire process, from storyboarding, graphic design and writing, to the final distribution of our publication to thousands of Maine residents. They reached out to self-advocates and parents with sensitivity and captured their stories succinctly and powerfully. They also worked with us through multiple edits, so that the publication reflected our most important priorities.

Elizabeth Morabito and her staff were knowledgeable and accommodating through the entire process, and the final product is fantastic. It is a wonderful tool to show the how people with DD are valued members of communities as it combined personal stories balanced by detailed explanations of a complicated system. We have gotten great feedback and multiple phone calls as a result of this project, and we are so pleased that we ordered a second printing.

Ms. Elizabeth Morabito met with me during the Fall of 2017 to discuss the idea of creating a publication through the Sacramento News & Review addressing People with Developmental Disabilities and Inclusion in the Community. I was in full support of this concept, although it was quite abstract in the beginning. We began collaborating with agencies in the community who supported the concept and, ultimately, were willing to contribute toward the funding of this publication. This process was lengthy and at times felt impossible to achieve but Ms. Morabito maintained a positive attitude and was exceptional at following up on any lead I sent her way.

After almost a year, (and the collaboration of 24 agencies, non-profits, and parent-groups), sufficient funding was achieved and 147,783 copies were distributed into 9 local newspapers throughout our service region.

I credit the staff at News & Review for being eager to learn about people with disabilities and what ‘inclusion’ means. They were dedicated to the concept and open to learning and editing details of the publication numerous times. They valued getting the information correct as much as completing the project! Through this process they learned the importance of terminology, updated concepts, and the value of each person in our community. I thank them for their willingness to be educated on a new subject.

I was impressed by the work of Ms. Morabito and her editorial staff who worked to research and comprehend the issues, interviewed and photographed individuals for featured stories, and developed a beautiful and easy-to-read publication that we are proud of. We were each provided with hundreds of extra copies that we continue to distribute 2 years later. This publication has helped to introduce the concept of Inclusion and further the acceptance of people with developmental disabilities into the community.

We look forward to working with Ms. Morabito and the News & Review again in the future.

One of the challenges for a VSO is to make sure veterans know how to contact you and what benefits may be available. Working with N&R helped solve this challenge. We were so successful that veterans would make their way to the office, newspaper in hand.

I would wholeheartedly encourage other CVSOs to work with N&R Publications. They provide a unique design for each publication for personal and professional services. N&R is as committed to serving veterans as CVSOs are.

When we initially heard about the work you do from our colleagues at the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, we were skeptical. We assumed that working with N&R Publications would be cost-prohibitive, or that the price didn’t include everything we thought it did. On both fronts, we were happy to be proven wrong.

Our publication was finalized a few weeks ago and inserted into a newspaper in California just last week. To say we are thrilled with the outcome would be an understatement. We love the stories that are included, we greatly appreciate the fresh and modern design, and we are so grateful to have a piece of collateral that not only impressed people who received it in their daily paper, but also those who have seen it in our meetings with colleagues, members, lawmakers and more. The ANCOR members who are featured are thrilled with the final product as well, and are eager to begin sharing it.

The only thing more impressive than the final product was the process of getting it done. From start to finish, working with Elizabeth, Thea and the entire team has been a pleasure. As the project manager, I felt like I always had a clear sense of where things stood, which enabled me to give timely updates to our funders and Board members. And, their creativity helped make this publication shine.

In all, I cannot recommend working with N&R Publications enough—without a doubt, it has been money well spent!

Since each publication is customized to the client, the information is timely, accurate and pertinent to the County’s veteran population.

The Indiana Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities is absolutely delighted with the inclusion publication N&R Publications created for us. We were surprised at how painless and simple their team made the process of putting it together. They handled all of the logistics from beginning to end, starting with the creation of the publication and culminating with distribution which involved printing, delivery and inserting 270,000 copies into the nine largest newspapers in Indiana. The tone of the articles and the focus were spot on, and they were able to follow the branding of our current inclusion campaign. Their whole team was fantastic to work with and we feel it couldn’t have gone any better. We are even hoping to do another publication with them next year!

I just wanted to say thank you to you and your team for all the hard work that was put in on the News and Review piece. As you know, we started this project in late 2019, under the assumption we would be highlighting a specific project. Your team pulled together a dynamic storyboard and helped facilitate communication for our sources. Our team struggled to get sources to speak to our project, and in turn, your team was able to adapt and advise on an entirely NEW story and sources. COVID hit, and as our team was unsure of how to move forward, your team again was able to adapt to new protocol, adjust our editorial delivery, and deliver a product that is even MORE meaningful than we originally imagined. Our business is extremely nuanced, and your team was able to piece together interviews that told an evocative story that really gets to the heart of our business and our brand. We are thrilled with the final product.

Thank you so much for all your hard work and thorough communication throughout this process. WES looks forward to working with your team again in the future!

To share the story and progress of Joshua’s House for the terminally ill homeless in our community, we turned to the News & Review team, Jeff vonKaenel, Elizabeth Morabito and Michelle Carl in particular, and they provided unbelievable support and guidance in terms of story lines and a coherent theme. They conducted all the interviews, took the photographs — they did all the work under our guidance and the result was an amazing 8-page supplement that resulted in close to $100,000 in donations within three weeks! We will continue to use the supplement to create greater awareness and increased community support of Joshua’s House — the first such facility on the West Coast!

As we strive to strategically grow our brand and reach new markets, Sacramento News & Review was able to support our marketing team by creating a non-traditional custom publication. Segments of this creative publication were issued to the public each week leading into the Fair, allowing readers to take a deeper look - almost "behind the scenes" at the State Fair.

With the help of key partners like the News & Review, we were able to achieve an 8% increase in total attendance, seeing more than 750,000 visitors over our 17-day State Fair. For the first time in more than 10 years, State Fair attendance levels exceeded 70,000 visitors on four separate days. Additionally, the California State Fair became the most "liked" Fair in the Western United States on Facebook with a new fan level of 108,196 Likes.

The News & Review team was able to capture many of the things that make State Fair "the best!" Their knowledgeable staff created content, designed and managed the project, while balancing the expectation of our team with the preferences of their readers.

As the winner of the 2013 IAFE Multipage Publication Award, you can imagine our appreciation of the great work of the News & Review team. If you are interested in a creative experience that ends with high quality results, we would highly recommend you give them a call.

The Crucible started the project with a lot of ideas about what we wanted and the design aspects that we liked. The design team at N&R Pubs was really thoughtful and clearly listened to what we were looking for and created a 68-page magazine that felt really on brand, while still being fresh and exciting.

Our team loved the design language that they established so much that we are now working on incorporating it into our other print collateral! One thing that made us know this design team was different: Our first proof was beautiful, but it didn’t quite capture all of the elements that we needed for the magazine. They carefully listened to our feedback and by the second proof had established a refined design concept that hit all the marks. Then instead of just copying that design throughout the piece, they kept the design feeling fresh through all 68-pages.

The team at N&R Publications was a dream to work with. Would highly recommend them, we are excited to work with them again!