Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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A note from
the president
Twenty years ago, Gene Patterson, a patron saint of great writing, forged
a partnership between the fledgling Modern Media Institute, now The Poynter
Institute, and ASNE. Thankfully, that partnership endures and enriches
us today.
Distressed over some of what he was seeing in newsrooms and prone to
visionary leadership rather than complaining, Patterson decided editors
should do more to nurture and reward great writing. He had just hired a
young English professor at the St. Petersburg Times who had not a day’s
worth of newspaper experience. But with his vision, Patterson thought young
Roy Peter Clark could help elevate the writing at the paper.
In the same time frame, Patterson, then ASNE president, provided the
inspiration and impetus for the ASNE Distinguished Writing Awards. But
that wasn’t enough. After the first awards were given, Patterson decided
that we should further honor great writing by publishing the winners in
an annual book. Clark was given three weeks to put it together. Thus was
born "Best Newspaper Writing" which Poynter still publishes annually.
In one fell swoop, Patterson was responsible for founding the writing
coach movement at U.S. newspapers, launching the Writing Awards and creating
an annual book that celebrates writing and serves as one of the best teaching
tools in the business. Just a few of his many great gifts to American journalism.
This year the writing awards celebrates 20 years of great writing with
a gift for you. Roy Peter Clark and Chip Scanlan of Poynter have reviewed
all previous volumes of "Best Newspaper Writing" and selected one winner
from each year whose work they have collected in an anthology that will
be given to all convention registrants. Clark and Scanlan have written
their own tributes to each writer, which will accompany the original work.
From the pens of Clark and Scanlan, the tributes, designed to stimulate
conversation and inspire reflection, are likely to be as finely crafted
as the winners’ work.
By the time you read this, the Writing Awards Board, chaired this year
by Gregory Favre, will have met in St. Petersburg and selected the 1998
winners. Gregory has planned a full morning at the convention dedicated
to a discussion of writing. He has lined up Rick Bragg, Ellen Goodman,
Donna Britt and Dave Barry — previous winners all — to talk about great
writing. Plus we’ll have this year’s winners to coach us on what they think
we need to do to get more of the best work from our reporters and into
our newspapers.
At $12.95 a copy (ordering information is on page 29) the best value
in journalism is the yearly "Best Newspaper Writing." I’ve got copies of
the last dozen years of "Best Writing" in my bookcase and I won’t lend
out any of them without making a note of who has it. Once handed out, they
are tough to get back. I’ve lost enough copies over the years to have become
downright proprietary about them.
In truth, these volumes are gems created to be mined and given away.
They are loaded with inspiration from gifted writers. Copies should be
in the hands of all reporters who aspire to write memorable and moving
stories and on the minds of editors whose job it is to create the environment
and teach the skills that allow reporters to do their best work.
"This book is intended not merely to honor but to inspire," says Jim Naughton,
president of Poynter. "It does so by showing that best newspaper writing
isn’t born, it’s made one paragraph at a time."
I’m always surprised "Best Newspaper Writing" doesn’t sell even more
copies than the 3,000 to 4,000 a year it does. It is ideal as a primary
text in a structured classroom setting and is widely used in college writing
classes. But it is perhaps even more useful as a discussion guide for professionals
in informal newsroom settings. If you are not already holding brown bag
lunch sessions for your staff to discuss and reinforce great writing, this
is the book to inspire you to get going.
Thanks to the insightful work of Clark, Don Fry, Karen Brown, and now
Scanlan, each volume has discussion questions, summaries of lessons learned
and interviews with the winners. In other words, the discussion guide is
already written for you. Put it in the hands of your reporters and editors,
designate someone to keep the discussions on point and you have an instant
— and quite beneficial — coaching session.
John Carroll of The Sun in Baltimore told me he finds the books so useful
he orders a case of them every year and gives them as "thank yous" for
good work. It’s a great idea; I’m going to steal it. I don’t imagine any
Sun writer wonders if Carroll cares about great writing. They know. His
actions say it all.
Some 1997 books are still available and the work from the 1998 book
will be published in the fall.
Having stayed with me this long, I can think of no more appropriate
reward than to treat you to a quote from the fertile intellect and considerable
passion for newspapers that still drives Patterson, a gifted writer himself.
This nugget of inspiration comes from a 1980 article he wrote on William
Allen White for The Quill:
I suggest there will never be a substitute for the printed word,
no matter what technology prints it, so long as the rational human mind
retains its capacity to question, consider and reflect. The written word
makes our record on this earth. And that record is nowhere more crucial
to the ordering of free men’s affairs than in the home community, the local
society.
And to that we say, Amen.
Rowe, ASNE president, is editor of The Oregonian, Portland.
