Published Wednesday, April 4, 2001
Exiting president outlines challenges to industry
BY CHRISTINA DENARDO
ASNE Reporter
Newspapers have a fleeting opportunity to capitalize on their fundamental advantage as their readers’ primary source of news coverage, outgoing ASNE President Richard A. Oppel said at the opening convention session Tuesday.
As newer media players such as the Internet gain a foothold in the market, editors who fail to recognize their best asset jeopardize newspapers’ standing as a mass medium, Mr. Oppel said.
“Our industry is going through profound structural change, and this year we are further buffeted by a stumbling economy,” Mr. Oppel said. “There is no doubt that the pace of change has accelerated, and when that occurs, the need for strong leadership intensifies.”
Mr. Oppel cited five challenges that newspapers are facing: Circulation is stagnant or declining while revenues shrink; the Internet hasn’t been fully developed as a tool to enhance newspaper readership; newspapers’ attempts to diversify their staffs have stalled; new roadblocks have been raised, limiting freedom of information; and attacks on journalists in Latin America are on the rise, endangering press freedom.
Mr. Oppel cited reports by Forrester Research that predicted the Internet would divert 15 percent of potential advertising revenue from newspapers by 2005.
The economic downturn has prompted newspapers to slash budgets, close sections and shrink news holes and, in some cases, lay off employees to meet operating targets.
Mr. Oppel praised the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, The Tampa Tribune, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and The New York Times for taking the lead in media convergence to augment readership and news coverage.
In recruiting a diverse staff, however, newspapers have far to go, he said. Despite ASNE’s commitment to diversity, the new ASNE survey showed a decline in the number of African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans in newsrooms for the first time since the survey was first conducted in 1978. The percentage dropped from 11.85 percent to 11.64 percent.
“ASNE doesn’t do the hiring. We keep the books. We call for fairness,” Mr. Oppel said. “The commitment to diversity must be borne across the breadth of our industry, not by ASNE alone.”
“We are good at recruiting minorities, but we are not nearly as good at keeping minorities in our newsrooms,” he said.
On another aspect of leadership, the convention’s main theme, Oppel said editors must not shrink from their duty to be advocates in their newsrooms and around the globe.
He chided editors who did not offer support in their editorial pages to the Orlando Sentinel when it attempted to gain access to racecar driver Dale Earnhardt’s autopsy photos. Florida’s open-records law, which would have made the photos available, was changed to block the newspaper’s request. Mr. Oppel said newspapers should not remain on the sidelines when it comes to the First Amendment.
“There is too much doubt in the ranks of editors,” Mr. Oppel said. “If we wait for only ‘safe’ examples in which to defend open records, there soon will be no open records.”
He called on newspapers to support journalists in other countries, especially in Latin America, who are under attack, sometimes facing kidnapping and murder. And he welcomed efforts by editors such as The Dallas Morning News’ Gilbert Bailon, who has developed partnerships with papers in Mexico.
ASNE officials say 574 people pre-registered for the convention, down from 712 last year. Some ASNE officers had said they expected newspaper budget cuts to reduce convention attendance this year.
