Len Downie honored for 25 years of leadership

Scott Bosley is ASNE's executive director. Reach him at sbosley@asne.org.

“IN THE SECOND HALF of the twentieth century, I believe I speak for all of us in saying, we have worked with the best in the business.”

That was Washington Post Co. Chairman Donald E. Graham's tribute in the newsroom last June when Leonard Downie Jr. announced his retirement after a quarter century in top leadership at the paper, first as managing editor and since 1991 as executive editor.

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What's next

ASNE asked leaders of the journalist organizations for ombudsmen, features editors and cartoonists to discuss tough times and their hopes for what the future holds

Public editors aren't extinct yet... by Stephen Pritchard
Keep the conversation with readers alive... by Tom Huang
Dwindling edtiroial cartoonists still connect with readers... by Ted Rall

The great experiment

John Maxwell Hamilton, who covered news abroad for The Christian Science Monitor and ABC Radio, among others, is dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University.

We owe our ideas about international news to Victor Lawson, a newspaper genius who believed world developments were too important to be left in the hands of foreign news agencies

FOR ANYONE WHO WONDERS IF THE history of American reporting abroad has lessons for today, the place to start is the tenement-like building that housed the Chicago Daily News at the turn of the 19th century. There on Wells Street, in his office on the top floor, owner (and newspaper genius) Victor Lawson conceived one of his greatest ideas, which he began as “largely an experiment.”

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Editors in Spokane contemplate life After AP

John Webster is Editorial Operations Director for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash.

CAN NEWSPAPERS FULFILL THEIR CHANGING mission without membership in The Associated Press? The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., has determined it is possible, and at a significantly lower cost.

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Fiery Forums

Saundra Keyes is a journalism professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno. Reach her at skeyes@unr.edu.

Anonymous comments drive traffic to newspaper Web sites and generate news tips, but with embarrassing flame wars and damaged credibility, is the price too high to pay?

EDITORS ARE STRUGGLING TO RECONCILE long-cherished definitions of credibility with increasing use of anonymous comments on newsroom Web sites, a recent ASNE survey shows.

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Q&A

Margaret Sullivan is the editor of The Buffalo (N.Y.) News. Reach her at
mmsullivan@buffnews.com.

ASNE bylaws
Member letter
FAQS
Complete copy of the bylaws with proposed changes

Margaret Sullivan talks with ASNE President Charlotte Hall about proposed changes to the ASNE bylaws that would open up membership and address the future of news

CHANGE IS IN THE AIR - IN NEWSROOMS, in Washington and no less at ASNE. As Charlotte Hall prepares to hand over the leadership baton to Marty Kaiser this spring, she and others have taken a hard look at the organization and its future. The results are some significant proposed changes in ASNE's bylaws. Perhaps the most notable one would be a small but important change in the organization's very name. It would become American Society of News Editors.

We pinned Charlotte down in mid-January to ask about the reasons for the changes and her hopes for ASNE as it moves into the future.

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Is it too little, too late?

Diana Smith is executive editor of Reed Brennan Media Associates in Orlando, Fla.

The Associated Press responds with more rate cuts as newspapers court other vendors

IN A YEAR OF JAW-DROPPING NEWS, it was still a shocker when the Tribune Co. gave notice to The Associated Press that its nine daily newspapers planned to drop the news service, the first major chain to do so. Tribune filed for bankruptcy two months later.

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The watchdog learns new tricks

Nancy Andrews is Managing Editor of Digital Media for the Detroit Free Press. Share links to other great packages. Go online to tae.asne.org, or e-mail Nancy at nandrews@freepress.com.

PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM, A CORNERSTONE of a daily newspaper, can fall flat on the Web. Here are some simple tips to help make your most important stories also the most read.

Does anybody read public service journalism online?

For many of us, the “public service” part of journalism is why we do what we do. It's what keeps us in journalism instead of working for a PR firm. These stories make our community a better place and are at the very core of our being.

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Sweating it out over media literacy

Smith is ASNE Education for Journalism Committee Chair, and editor, Times Union, Albany, N.Y. He attended the news literacy conference and filed this report. Reach him at rsmith@timesunion.com.

WHO GOES TO FLORIDA IN the middle of August? The warm sun in midwinter makes you feel like you're getting away with something naughty. In summer's stifling heat, you go only if something more compelling than a getaway is at hand.

This summer, what drew some two dozen newsroom leaders, journalism educators, young journalists and students to take refuge from the summer heat was an ASNE-sponsored conference on news literacy at the Poynter Institute.

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Moving target

Warren Watson teaches journalism at Ball State University, where he is director of J-Ideas, a national institute that promotes excellence in scholastic journalism and First Amendment awareness. Reach him via e-mail at wwatson@bsu.edu.

Academia struggles to stay current and fill the talent needs of the rapidly zigzagging news industry

THE CREAKING AND GROANING YOU'RE hearing behind the walls of academia's Ivory Towers are the sounds of journalism school programs moving to meet the uncertain needs of today's zigzagging media profession.

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ASNE hosts webinars to spark innovation

Kevin Wilcox is a freelance writer and editorial consultant in State College, Pa. Reach him at kevinwx@comcast.net.

FOR THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY, “INNOVATION” isn't just a buzzword anymore; it's a lifeline. Not only do newspapers need to invent a bold new place for news in a fast-paced, mobile world, they also have to reinvent their own culture to embrace, rather than be wary, of change.

To help editors lead change, ASNE President Charlotte Hall formed an Innovation Committee this year and appointed co-chairs Jennifer Carroll, vice president of digital content at Gannett, and Milton Coleman, deputy managing editor at The Washington Post.

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Informing a democracy in a time of change

Cristal Williams is project director at ASNE and can be reached at cwilliams@asne.org.

AS THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE CHANGES, are local communities getting the information they need to foster civic activity, encourage public accountability and solve problems?

Those are a few of the questions a newly formed group of civic leaders and media executives is charged with addressing.

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Is there still a winning strategy?

James Hopson is a retired publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison and a former vice president for Lee Enterprises. He earned an MBA from Harvard University and served as a director to the Audit Bureau of Circulations board. Reach him via e-mail at james.hopson@news-jrnl.com.

A former vice president of Lee Enterprises looks at the fate of newspaper companies that diversified 10 years ago versus those that did not, and finds a stark contrast and a difficult path forward

With the clarity of hindsight we can now see that the strategic decisions of some newspaper companies have put them on the road to prosperity, while the decisions of others appear to be taking them over a cliff.

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Perfect timing

For video and articles written by participants on the trip, visit us on the Web at: www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=7035.

Seaton, a former president of ASNE, is editor-in-chief of The Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury. He can be reached at eseaton@themercury.com.

ASNE’s trip to Venezuela starts off rocky, but finishes strong when the delegation scores a private meeting with President Hugo Chávez on a day when his country was implicated by Interpol for aiding terrorists in Colombia

LIKE TO GET IN THE MIDDLE of a hot news story?

How about this: Interpol releases a report validating documents that implicate Venezuela in aiding terrorists in Colombia. And on that day, you get to spend five hours with the president of Venezuela — one of the most important figures in the Western Hemisphere — to hear his response.

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The candidates on a shield law, the press

More online
For more coverage of the ASNE convention, including video, ASNE Reporter coverage and the text of some of the speeches, visit us on the Web at www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=6923. And keep up-to-date on the shield law at www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=5459.

Kristin Deasy is an online assistant editor for USA TODAY and can be reached at kdeasy@usatoday.com.

A FEDERAL SHIELD LAW MOVED closer to reality with the backing of presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, who pledged their support at Capital Conference '08, the joint convention of ASNE and the Newspaper Association of America.

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Newseum debuts

Kristin Deasy is an online assistant editor for USA TODAY and can be reached at kdeasy@usatoday.com.

THREE DAYS AFTER THE NEWSEUM opened to the public, editors and publishers from across the nation assembled to explore the seven-level, $450 million monument to the news.

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Levees Fail but the staff holds strong

Steve Buttry is editor of The Gazette and GazetteOnline, where an earlier version of this column appeared. Reach him via e-mail at Steve.Buttry@gazcomm.com.

An editor on his first day at a new job finds that he'll be working with talented and resourceful staffers who turn in great work under the worst of circumstances

THE BRIDGES, DAMS AND LEVEES of Eastern Iowa couldn't handle a 500-year flood. But The Gazette staff could.

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An abiding affection

Although they aren't hugged on the streets anymore, journalists covering, and living with, the aftermath of Katrina find they have forged a strong bond with readers, who are not quick to forget what they've been through together

Will Doolittle is a projects editor at The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y. He can be reached at will@poststar.com.

EARLY ON, AFTER THE STORM, people burst into tears when their papers were delivered.

Reporters got hugged on the street.

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Tangled Web

Editors meet to discuss how to hold ethics standards high in the face

Ceppos, dean of the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, is a former fellow in media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

EVERYONE KNOWS THE PITFALLS OF PUTTING the content of mainstream newspapers on the Internet: Reader-generated content doesn't always meet our standards. Updating constantly for the Web can lead to errors. Carefully thought-out decisions on play in the print product may fly into the ether on the Internet.

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When Amendments Collide

Ken Tingley is editor of The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y., and can be reached via e-mail at tingley@poststar.com.

THE FIRST AMENDMENT HAS BEEN getting its butt kicked lately by the Second Amendment. It’s a development the Founding Fathers could not have predicted, that two rights they considered so fundamental to the original Bill of Rights would be at such odds in 21st century America.

With the advent of computer-assisted reporting, Web sites with unlimited space and the ability to access databases of government information, newspapers have been able to find new and innovative ways to perform their role as a watchdog of government.

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The future is here

Newspaper large and small are moving online. Here's how.

Roger Simmons is Associate Managing Editor/Online for The Orlando Sentinel. He can be reached at RSimmons@orlandosentinel.com

IF YOU WANT A GLIMPSE of the online future of America's newspapers, just look around.

Direct your attention to Shelby, N.C. It's home to the "Star Car" - a four-wheeled, Internet-ready mobile newsroom and the online pride of Freedom Communication's Shelby Star.

Or look over at Long Island, N.Y. That's where folks are pointing their Web browsers to catch Pulitzer Prize winner Walt Handelsman's exceedingly popular animated cartoons for Tribune Co.'s Newsday.

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More good news than bad, for a change

With ASNE and other journalism organizations leading the way, Congress passes the OPEN Government Act, has a federal shield law in the works and is working with a new recognition that transparency is important

Christian Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke (Va.) Times. He can be reached at christian.trejbal@roanoke.com

OPEN GOVERNMENT IS ON THE DECLINE. Officials at all levels are hiding more information than ever before. The Freedom of Information Act and all of its state progeny are on their last legs.

So goes the conventional wisdom.

The conventional wisdom is wrong. There are still plenty of reasons to worry, but there are plenty of reasons for optimism, too.

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NOT A METHOD, AN UNDERSTANDING

When tragedy struck an Amish community in Lancaster, Pa., reporters and editors faced the challenge of aggressively covering the story without offending a peaceful people who shun much of the modern world.

Konrad Marshall is a Lifestyle reporter for The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville. He can be reached at konrad.marshall@jacksonville.com

RESPONDING TO THE CALL OF AN EDITOR, Jennifer Todd interrupted her daily errands and made her way to the scene, unshowered, and unready to embrace the new day of a new week.

"We didn't know what was going on yet," said Todd, a general assignment reporter with Lancaster's morning newspaper, the Intelligencer Journal. "The whole time you're driving down there, you're thinking - wishing - 'I hope this turns out to be nothing.' "

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SPIKE THE OBIT; NEWSPAPERS STILL ROCK

If newspapers ever cease to exist, someone will make a fortune reinventing them because nobody is better at finding out what’s going on in a community and letting everyone know.

Eugene Robinson is an op-ed columnist for The Washington Post. He can be reached at robinsong@washpost.com.

EVERY DAY, I GET E-MAILS FROM readers that begin, "Why have the Mainstream Media refused to report ...?" or "Why is the MSM too cowardly to tell us that ... ?" The e-mails invariably go on to cite, in considerable detail, some example of government malfeasance or political chicanery that was uncovered by a newspaper reporter doggedly working his or her beat, splashed all over the front page, and then picked up by newspapers and other media from coast to coast.

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A frickin' success

In a basement office in Lawrence, Kan., an irreverent Web site blazes a bold trail and becomes the envy of many newspaper editors

Madeline Farbman is the Online Editor at The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y. Reach her at farbman@poststar.com

IN THE BASEMENT BELOW THE OFFICES OF A COLLEGE-TOWN NEWSPAPER in Kansas, one can find an antidote to the fear that currently hangs over the newspaper industry: that print is dying and that news will soon be either online or obsolete. That’s the home of lawrence.com, an office furnished with bean bag chairs and a Play Station 3, and staffed by young employees who feel free to wear shorts and baseball caps to work. The Web site has become something of a phenomenon that newspaper and Web site editors aspire to imitate.

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Coming soon

Newseum, set for spring debut, gets preliminary ‘wow’ from editors

Kristin Deasy is an editorial page intern at USA TODAY. Reach her at kdeasy@usatoday.com.

HAVING MISSED ONE DEALINE, the new Newseum in Washington, D.C., is now slated to open in the first few months of 2008.

The $450 million museum, featuring 500 years of press history, had been scheduled to open Oct. 15. But construction companies, museum officials found, have about as little respect for deadlines as some reporters, so no firm date has been set for the museum's debut.

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Misplaced priorities in health news coverage

Gary Schwitzer is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. He is director of the school’s graduate program in health journalism. As a reporter, he covered health and medical news for 15 years. He is publisher of HealthNewsReview.org and maintains a health news blog.

IMAGINE a reporter filing a story from the Detroit Auto Show. She writes about one car maker’s hot new model as if it is the best thing since the ’57 Corvette. But in the excitement over the chrome and style, she doesn’t mention the cost of the new model, doesn’t compare it with other manufacturers’ offerings in the same class, and doesn’t mention anything about performance (fuel efficiency, handling, braking, safety issues, etc.)

An editor would certainly raise questions about this kind of puffery.

But over on the health care beat, the majority of stories on new products, procedures, treatments and tests are published without including comparable information. Claims that would never be accepted unchallenged from a politician are accepted unquestioningly from physicians and researchers and company spokespersons. ...

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Band-Aids won't stop the bleeding now, but some

Ken Winter retired as editor and publisher of the Petoskey (Mich.) News-Review after working at the newspaper for more than 34 years. He is a Michigan State University School of Journalism graduate and University of Michigan NEH Journalism Fellow, who recently earned a master’s degree in education with secondary journalism teaching certification from Ferris State University. Winter is an adjunct journalism and political science instructor at North Central Michigan College. He is a retired member of the ASNE. Ken can be reached at kwint@freeway.net.

LIKE ITS TOWNSPEOPLE WHO KEPT 1880S OUTLAW JESSE JAMES from robbing their bank, the Northfield (Minn.) News and its affiliated newspapers aren’t about to lose their readers.

They’re doing it the old-fashioned way — lots of hard work, training and making sure their cluster of 11 daily, twice-weekly and weekly newspapers, located south of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, grow local news content, while strengthening their Internet presence.

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Ethical-decision making with an online twist

Matt Wisniewski, a journalism student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has put together three excercises in ethical decision-making designed for digital media. He modified the ASNE-Poynter Ethics Tool and was assisted in this project by Bob Steele, Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at the Poynter Institute.

Select an excercise ...

Ethics debate

Keegan Kyle is a senior studying journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

AS HORROR UNFOLDED AT VIRGINIA Tech April 16, media industries clearly saw a new breaking news world in front of them. Print news cycles were irrelevant and broadcasters weighed video from non-journalists holed up in campus buildings. The heady media mix included cell phones, chat sessions and online networking communities.

The old world met the new world in a single moment of tragedy.

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Minneapolis: First a scramble, then a very long, sad night

An inside look at a multimedia newsroom covering the I-35W bridge collapse.

Kate Parry is the reader representative at the Star Tribune, Minneapolis.

REPORTER KEVIN GILES WOULD LATER WRITE that he thought the “huge brown cloud” he could see from University Avenue on his way home was from Interstate 35W bridge construction.

But as he neared the ramp onto 35W past the bridge, he observed odd behavior: A cluster of people staring south toward the city. Construction workers at a dead run. He called night editor Pam Miller and told her, “Something’s wrong on the bridge.”

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Living out loud

Covering those who surrender privacy without thinking

Kathleen Bartzen Culver teaches journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

IN 24 SHORT HOURS, I ACCIDENTALLY AMPUTATED my husband from a family photo, inadvertently set my status to “looking for a relationship” and made a colleague blush by saying a student had “poked” me.

Welcome to the world of Facebook, an online social networking site that has dramatically increased my connections with students, while teaching me hard lessons about privacy and inaccuracy online.

As I trip my way through this amazing new experience in connectivity I keep coming back to a question far more serious than my own Facebook follies. As journalists, what do we do when subjects have surrendered their privacy online and can no longer try to reclaim it?

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Minneapolis: The news blog

James Lileks is moderator and blogger at buzz.mn, a Star Tribune community Web site.

IT’S AN IRON RULE OF BLOGGING: The moment you step away from the computer, something happens. If you’re one of those bloggers who posts now and then – news about the cat, thoughts on Harry Potter – you can take time off. You’re not a public utility. But recent years have seen the rise of news bloggers who not only comment on breaking news, but are expected to comment. They’ve become destination points for people who’ve heard the story and want more. More links, more opinions, more news, more of the event that’s just driven all other subjects off stage. The Star Tribune’s community discussion site, buzz.mn, is set up to be a forum for locals to read and discuss any subject, and the night the bridge fell that’s what it was. And more.

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Shootout at the Election ’08 corral

Newspapers may be the biggest winners as blogs, online grow

Keegan Kyle is a senior studying journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

... Online communication, especially blogs and video, will make the 2008 presidential election unlike any previous information shootout. Candidates have a fresh array of tactics to speak around political reporters while voters are experimenting with new avenues of free speech. News organizations that embrace this technology shift, rather than viewing it as a threat, will learn the deep lesson of the Fireside Chats: Despite a managed message and personal connection, newspapers remained America’s primary source of political information.

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Recent tragedies demonstrate demand for images and video from the public

Lou Ferrara is deputy managing editor for new media at The Associated Press.

CITIZEN IMAGES FROM MAJOR NEWS events are no longer a possibility. They are an expectation.

Soon after Seung-Hui Cho’s rampage through Virginia Tech left 33 dead, reporters and editors began asking citizens for video and images.

Within The Associated Press, there was surprise that there weren’t more citizen images for such a major news event — two years after the iconic subway image from the London bombings made it clear that citizen journalism was now an essential part of newsgathering.

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Virginia Tech: Students use new technology to report first for their tight-knit campus community

Diana Smith, executive editor of Reed Brennan Media Associates, is the 2007-08 co-vice chair of The American Editor Committee.

COVERING A NEWS EVENT OF THE PROPORTION of the Virginia Tech shootings was demanding for seasoned local and national media. Yet, the young student journalists at the university rose admirably to the challenge, said Kelly Furnas, adviser to Virginia Tech’s student media.

In some cases, the students outdistanced big media companies’ response with technology and investigative techniques. “I think they did a really good job,” Furnas said.

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Virginia Tech coverage: Collegiate Times

Robert Bowman is summer editor-in-chief of Virginia Tech’s Collegiate Times.

ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 16, I struggled to get out of bed. I looked outside my window before my 8 a.m. class. It was snowing. “This is the worst day ever,” I said to my roommate.

How I wish the worst part of that day had been the weather.

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Virginia Tech coverage: Richmond

John Witt is multimedia editor for the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch

WE GOT WORD OF THE SHOOTINGS during our Monday morning editors’ meeting on April 16. Reporters, photographers and a supervising editor were immediately dispatched for the four-hour drive to Blacksburg.

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Virgnia Tech: Interview with Professor Roland Lazenby

Kate Levenstien, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, interviews Virginia Tech journalism professor Roland Lazenby about the book “April 16: Virginia Tech Remembers” he co-authored with his students.

Listen to the interview ...

Virginia Tech Remembers

Excerpts from the newly released “April 16th: Virginia Tech Remembers.” (Plume: $14)

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Roanoke: Online coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings

At The Roanoke (Va.) Times, Editor Carole Tarrant and team kept the national story of the April 16 shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech local, as a key to its distinctive coverage. Static words and photos weren’t the storytelling tools of choice for the team, including Seth Gitner. He uses multimedia tools to tell us about, well, multimedia tools. Read and listen to firsthand accounts from Mike Gangloff, Seth Gitner, Meg Martin, Greg Esposito, Sam Dean and Evilio Contreras.

See The Roanoke Times story now ...

‘This thing is not done.’

Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee, whose documentary ‘When the Levees Broke’ examines the destruction and mayhem caused by Hurricane Katrina, says the media still has much left to do in the way of reporting on the 2005 tragedy. Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts Jr. reports from the 2007 ASNE Convention.

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for commentary at The Miami Herald. He is also the author of the book “Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood.”

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The BALCO Boys

How one book called “Game of Shadows” about legendary Giants slugger Barry Bonds and allegations he was a drug user made problems for two reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle and nearly landed them in jail. Kristi Funderburk on the scandal’s aftermath and just what this has to do with the First Amendment.

Kristi Funderburk recently graduated from Towson University with majors in journalism and new media. She has interned at USA TODAY and The Sun, Baltimore. Reach her at klfunderburk@gmail.com.

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change.com

We all know newspapers face stiff competition from the Internet, but nowhere is that more apparent than the world of sports.

Michael Gluskin graduated in May from the University of Maryland with degrees in journalism and government and politics, and has interned with USA TODAY. Reach him at mdgluskin@gmail.com.

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Justice is served

Breyer the first Supreme Court Justice to speak at ASNE since 1986

Aruna Jain is an editorial aide for The Washington Post Metro section. Reach her via e-mail at arunakjain@gmail.com.

REPORTERS REQUIRED RESERVATIONS FOR ONE of the 100-plus seats available to them on Dec. 4 when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases that challenged voluntary public-school integration programs. They also had to call ahead for a spot to witness arguments in the partial birth abortion case heard in November.

Such high-profile, controversial cases are natural editorial choices.

But for many of the other 70 to 90 cases that fill the Supreme Court’s docket every year, media coverage is decreasing. The United States Supreme Court and its inscrutable justices remain, to most people, a mystery. ...

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Hopson, Clisham debate!

Can 30 media execs be wrong?

New research, financials point to winners, losers in the coming new world

James Hopson is the retired publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. Hopson earned an MBA from Harvard University and served as a director to the Audit Bureau of Circulations board. On April 30, he started a walk across the United States, one of his lifelong dreams. He is blogging about the experience at the Poynter Institute’s Web site.

It depends on where they’re focused

Elaine Clisham is the director of marketing at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va. Many of the points in this article come from API’s Newspaper Next research. Clisham earned her MBA from Northeastern University in Boston. For the record, she thinks Jim Hopson is one of the smartest minds in the industry; she first heard him speak in 1990 and was so impressed she still has the notes. She envies him his walking adventure and hopes he’ll blog, upload photos, take video and do podcasts as well as just send postcards.

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Secrets & Subpoenas

In January, ASNE convened a First Amendment summit in Washington, made possible by a grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation. Here's the good news and the bad news in the uphill battle against government secrecy.

David Westphal is Washington editor of McClatchy Newspapers and 2006-08 co-chair of ASNE’s Freedom of Information Committee.

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A quick consensus from extra innings

When the ASNE First Amendment Summit stretched into an extra day, participants honed in on five action steps to take right now.

Ken Paulson is editor of USA TODAY and USA TODAY.com and chairs ASNE's 2007-08 First Amendment Committee.

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The story will be openness

An ASNE delegation travels to Mexico, witnessing tense encounters at the border and meeting brave journalists who risk intimidation — and worse — every day.

Neil Brown is executive editor of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

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You don't have to fear ‘good enough’

API’s Newspaper Next project teaches editors that being a disruptor in a time of change is better than a relentless pursuit of perfection.

Steve Buttry is director of tailored programs at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va.

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Here's the thing about teaching ...

A newsroom pro finds that the transition to the college classroom is a tough one, filled with long meetings, solitary pursuits and rewarding opportunities to help youn people.

Timothy Kenny is associate professor of journalism at the Unviersity of Connecticut, Storrs.

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Don't close the books on the 2006 elections

Jim Pumarlo writes and speaks on Community Newsroom Success Strategies. He is author of “Bad News and Good Judgment: A Guide to Reporting on Sensitive Issues in a Small-Town Newspaper” and is writing a book on election coverage, which is due to be released in 2007. He can be contacted at http://www.pumarlo.com/.

MENTION ELECTION COVERAGE IN THE aftermath of the midterm contests, and most newsrooms will likely turn a collective deaf ear. Yet this is the perfect time — before the files are formally closed — for editors and reporters to evaluate how they performed in 2006 and to identify steps for improved coverage in 2008. ...

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Tips from eight of the best ...

Arizona Daily Star, Tucson — The Beachwood Reporter, Chicago —The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky. — Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa. — FLORIDAY TODAY, Melbourne, Fla. — Washingtonpost.com — Asbury Park Press, Neptune, N.J. — The Kansas City (Mo.) Star

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What if God were one of our readers?

Debra Mason is executive director of Religion Newswriters Association.

WHAT WOULD THE ALMIGHTY — usually "God" on first reference — think of religion coverage in today's newspapers? It's a good question, and one that is easily answered. Just ask Him. Or Her.

Religion Newswriters Executive Director Debra Mason found the Prime Mover at a diner recently, a copy of the local paper in one hand and cup of coffee in the other. ...

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A mixed day for free speech

Marcus Rutherford is a U.K. qualified lawyer with 30 years experience as a commercial litigator with a specialist media practice.

ONCE UPON A TIME DEFAMATION lawyers only needed to concern themselves with the limited effects of publication within defined jurisdictions. A lawyer considering the remedies available for a defamatory article published in one jurisdiction needed only to look at the laws of that jurisdiction. ...

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Trends to watch in 2007

Diane Connolly is editor of ReligionLink, a free, weekly Internet news resource.

RELIGION AND ETHICS are at the heart of most of the country’s deepest debates:

Right and wrong. Corruption and hypocrisy were at the top of voters’ hit lists this fall. Next year, watch for renewed attention to the ethics of everything — what’s right, and what’s wrong, and what to do about it. That extends from politics and business to cheating in schools. ...

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Tools and training

RELIGION | NEWSWRITERS provides resources to help journalists write about religion with accuracy, balance and insight. It offers national, regional and customized newsroom training through ...

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Making journalism hyper local

Jeff Jarvis blogs on media at Buzzmachine.com, and is associate professor and director of the News Innovation Project at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.

WELL, SINCE YOU ASKED I do have a few suggestions for newspaper editors.
First, we need to admit that too much of American journalism is wasteful: We spend too much of our dwindling resources on ego (replicating others’ coverage under our own bylines.)

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Creating a constructive culture

Robert Zaltsberg is editor of The Herald-Times in Bloomington, Ind.

THE DEMANDS ON THE TIME of a newspaper editor have always been multiple and borderline overwhelming. Today’s challenges, led by how we integrate our reporting with the new technologies available to us, turn up the heat even more.

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What are editors supposed to be doing?

Ellen Foley is editor of the Wicsonsin State Journal, Madison.

THE ONLINE REVOLUTION FEELS LIKE old news in most newsrooms. We are now more familiar with pixels than pica poles, despite the cartoonlike depictions of our tradition-bound reservations to the multimedia world. The daily life of today’s editors comes down to the nuance: What should we be doing? What could we be doing?

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