Gilbert Bailon is editorial page editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the 2007-08 president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

STOP. TAKE A BREATH.

Think before you whack those dollars in your newsroom budget for association dues, industry conferences and training. Those lambs often are the first to slaughter when the budget noose tightens.

Why should those matter in 2008? Let me expound:

• A consortium of organizations that advocate for open government and free speech, The Sunshine in Government Initiative, successfully lobbied for an enhanced Freedom of Information Act that improves governmental accountability. To employ a sports cliché, that kind of advocacy doesn't show up in the box score when you pay your association dues, yet the benefits are tangible and material to our profession.

  The consortium's membership includes ASNE, The Associated Press, Association of Alternative Weeklies, Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, National Association of Broadcasters, National Newspaper Association, Newspaper Association of America, Radio-Television News Directors Association, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Society of Professional Journalists.

  ASNE legal counsel Kevin Goldberg and ASNE FOI committee co-chairs David Westphal and Pat Yack took the most recent lead, although the groundwork spanned years of effort among many ASNE allies.

  U.S. Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., along with congressman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., also helped to navigate the bill to a successful ending.

  That's a lot of thanks to a lot of people. It was a monumental task to wade through a tide of anti-media sentiment to demonstrate that the average citizen benefits from open government, not just journalists who ferret out important government information.

• The ASNE/Newspaper Association of America joint convention, which is timed with the NEXPO conference, will overflow with energy, ideas and hands-on skills that will far exceed the value of the actual dollars invested. It's an opportunity for editors and business-side colleagues from the same companies to get steeped in complex issues that transcend any one discipline. The potential for companywide benefit will be great amid a time of intense pressure within the media industry.

  Expand your horizons and those of your colleagues April 13-16 at the Washington, D.C., convention center. Take your boss with you.

• The highly successful Sunshine Week that advocates and educates for open government will return March 16-22. For the first time, the campaign materials will be created bilingually with ads and promotions for Spanish-language media of all varieties.

• The ASNE Journalism for a New Age Endowment Campaign is ongoing. Given a $2.5 million challenge grant by Knight Foundation to support our Sunshine Week/First Amendment efforts, we are working to raise $3.8 million in matching funds to support the broad work of ASNE, including future of journalism and diversity initiatives. Read all about it and pledge, if you haven't already, at www.asne.org.

• ASNE's Ethics and Values Committee is a co-sponsor of a workshop Feb. 13-14 in Santa Clara, Calif., that explores the standards that traditional newspaper companies apply to their news Web sites. An august panel of experts will examine what transfers and what might be unique in cyberspace. A summary will be prepared for the April convention in Washington.

• The UNITY: Journalists of Color convention will attract an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people from July 23-27 in Chicago. It is the Super Bowl of U.S. media professional events and will attract diverse journalists across an array of media fields. For your staff, it will offer skills workshops and specialized advanced training. For editors, it will be the largest media job fair of its kind. ASNE will have a strong presence and will conduct a leadership training program for aspiring middle managers.

The presidential election race is wide open. That competition is good for readership and public service within our democracy. It remains to be seen whether the print sector will reap the advertising benefits, if not through the printed product then perhaps online. Our role in the community engagement is vital.

The overall economy and events peculiar to the media industry continue to challenge us. But the core business of informing and improving life for our readers/users is the bulwark against the choppy waters that sometime seem to rise every day.

We will take on some water and unfortunately lose people overboard. Yet our craft will stay afloat and serve our communities for many years to come.

Stay the course. Don't let the motion sickness deter you.