Last Updated: August 18, 2000
Printer-friendly version
International
Brazilians explore own editors association
Inspired by ASNE, a group of Brazil’s top editors explores
forming a group outside its publishers association
By Rosental Calmon Alves
It took just a small group of editors getting together in New York City
to create ASNE on April 25, 1922. A group of Brazilian editors, hoping
to replicate that success, participated as guests at the Washington convention
as part of an effort to follow in the footsteps of ASNE’s founders and
create a similar organization.
Edward Seaton, 1998-99 ASNE president, pointed out to the Brazilian
visitors the similarities between their group and the group of editors
who created ASNE 78 years ago.
“I’m sure you can do it,” Seaton told the editors, joining current ASNE’s
president Richard Oppel, as the first to support the Brazilian group’s
visit.
The six editors, who work for some of the biggest Brazilian newspapers,
are already members of an “editorial committee” within the Associação
Nacional dos Jornais (ANJ, the Brazilian association of publishers, with
125 newspaper-members). However, they gathered in Washington to see how
ASNE works, since they were thinking about expanding the dimensions of
their committee into a national organization.
“I found the convention very positive, especially because of the variety
of relevant issues and the unique opportunity to exchange experiences with
editors from all over the country,” said Ali Kamel, editor-in-chief of
O Globo, a Rio de Janeiro newspaper, and the flagship of Brazil’s biggest
media conglomerate (Organizações Globo). “I would very much
like that we had an organization like ASNE and I will fight for this to
happen.”
The timing could not be better for Brazilian editors to move forward
in developing their own organization. The newspaper industry has shown
an impressive growth in this country of 171 million. Between 1990 and 1999,
circulation increased by 70 percent according to a recent ANJ report. In
the last year alone, five new titles were launched with an average of 100,000
daily circulation.
After 21 years of military dictatorship (1964-1985), freedom of the
press has been re-established and Brazilian newspapers have increased in
quality, becoming aggressive watchdogs of the democratic system under construction.
Throughout the country, editors and publishers have led a process of modernization
and professionalization of Brazilian journalism.
The breadth of these improvements brought about the idea of an ASNE-like
Brazilian institution. There is a great appetite for the exchange of experiences
and journalism-related research, studies and debates like the ones ASNE
has generated for decades in the United States.
“In part, this kind of work has been done by ANJ, but obviously an institution
representing the editors would have a different perspective and could invest
more in issues more directly connected with the newsroom’s needs,” said
Eduardo Brito, editor of Jornal da ANJ, the monthly newspaper of the publishers
association. Brito was so impressed by the Washington convention that he
used five pages of the May edition of the tabloid-size Jornal da ANJ to
publish his coverage of the event.
The predominant idea among the Brazilian editors is to create ASNE-like
organization within the umbrella of the publishers association, taking
full advantage of already participating in one of ANJ’s committees. “I
am not sure if just strengthening the editorial arm of ANJ would be enough,”
warned Ruth Aquino, executive-editor of O Dia, a Rio de Janeiro newspaper.
Another member of the Brazilian group who attended ASNE’s convention, Aquino
is also the president of the World Editors Forum (which exists within the
World Association of Newspapers — formerly FIEJ).
“We have an excellent opportunity to create in Brazil an organization
like ASNE,” Aquino said. “Brazilian editors should understand that an organization
like that is indispensable.” It’s vital now in “the information business
to reinforce the importance of newsrooms and journalists as content mills
that produce for all forms of media.”
The actual format of the association is still in discussion, but the
Brazilian editors seem to have been touched by the ASNE spirit and want
to firmly follow the example of ASNE’s founders.
Alves, former executive editor of Rio de Janeiro’s Jornal do
Brasil, holds the John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Journalism at the
University of Texas at Austin.
