The American Editor, October 2000

Table of Contents

A note from the President

• A peek under the hood of the convention, by Richard A. Oppel

American Votes - Unplugged

• America: Land of the free, Home of the irritables, the doers, the alienateds, the unpluggeds and the don't knows, by Ellen Shearer
• Editors: If readers don't care, we should try harder, by Pam Luecke
• Gen Y is multimedia, by Noelle Straub
• Distant from the process, by Krista Larson
• Connecting political coverage to readers, National politics might be an entertaining spectacle, but readers connect with bread-and-butter regional issues that change the way they live their lives, by Mike Riley

Diversity

• Ten years later, survey finds progress, failings, Follow-up to landmark 1990 study of gays and lesbians in newsrooms can be read as an indictment of the press, but a close look shows a glass that is half full, by Loren Ghiglione

Freedom of Information

• Plotting FOI strategy in the digital age, ASNE committee is working on basis that it's possible to protect and strengthen the public's right to know while recognizing reasonable privacy concerns, by Anders Gyllenhaal
• We are one, but mind your own business, The delicate balancing act between the public's right to know and the desire for privacy has been going on for centuries, with each generation charting its own course, by Eric Newton
• What's in ASNE's FOI project
• FOI reading list

Journalism reporters

• Media beats, Felicity Barringer and Howard Kurtz cover our business for two of the most respected daily newspapers in the world. So, who are these people, and how do they view their job?, by Sylvia Smith
• Covering business of news
• Shining light on excesses

Ask Dr. Ink

• A 'major league' slur and political celibates, The doctor offers prescriptions for profanity in the news, where to draw the line on political participation and the value of visual journalists

Good writing

• Aiming for better instead of 'not bad', If you want to improve your newspaper - every editor's goal - you have to do more than catch all the errors; you have to improve what's already good, by Don Fry

Management advice

• Assign yourself to help your assignment editors, Young editors can shape mood and morale in the newsroom, but they need to know how to have the tough conversations and criticize for positive results, by Edward Miller

An American Editor

• Small paper has major league goals, Joe Distelheim tells reporters they can use the same words in Huntsville that they use at The New York Times, by Arlene Notoro Morgan
• The Huntsville (Ala.) Times
• Joe Distelheim

Pages across America

• Lexington gives new destinations to readers, by Pam Luecke

ASNE on the move

• Fanning, first woman to lead ASNE, dies
• Clarification
• Calendar