GREAT CONVENTION BODES WELL FOR THE COMING YEAR

Energy and momentum seem to be the words that best describe the leadership of Bill Ketter and the admirable organizational skills of Rich Oppel and his team of ASNE convention planners. They also aptly define the ambitious projects ahead for the society's committees this year.

Bill gave us a year of dedicated service and direction, fulfilling an agenda that focused on the basics and the core values of journalism. These themes set the tone for the year's hard work by ASNE committees and shaped the content of the annual convention. In a note to Ketter, Seymour Topping, former ASNE president and administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, said of the convention, "There was a pervasive sense of anxiety among the editors about what direction to take in the future and the programs as designed provided excellent advice."

The lasting impact of the convention can be found in the reports and other information we stuff in our suitcases and take home. The range of information produced by this year's committees offer exceptional utility for our news staffs. Three committee reports, in particular, examined critical issues for newspapers and could be the basis for newsroom conversations:

• What's Important to Generation X. This research gives us an encouraging "yes" to the question, can we serve the twentysomethings audience with a conventional newspaper? And it offers effective guidelines on how to do that.
• The Journalism Values Handbook. It was produced by the Journalism Values Institute to help newspapers revitalize journalism's core values and restore connections with the public. The handbook outlines ways to discuss the core values of journalism. Editors can use the handbook to get the newsroom people thinking and talking about how to build values more effectively into the work of the newspaper and to engage readers and non-readers.
• How We Can Help Each Other: a report to America's top editors from your copy desks. This is a constructive look at the current state of copy editing with thoughtful solutions and new approaches on pagination, staffing, training, recognition and restructuring. Merv Aubespin, of the Courier-Journal in Louisville, directed the study and suggests that newspapers "need to act on the advice offered in this report and see whether it works for them."
• Energy and momentum were evident in every committee planning meeting at the convention and are reflected in an ambitious set of planning memos from each of the committee chairs. For 1996-97, we have an exciting agenda that will involve several hundred editors in our continuing examination of newspapers and newspaper issues.

In addition to those engaged in committee projects, many other editors can participate in the work of ASNE through the meetings and seminars scheduled throughout the year. Here is a sampling.

The Human Resources Committee will hold a national copy editors conference.

The Change Committee will collaborate with journalism schools and regional newspapers to produce a series of seminars that will study how newspapers can reconnect to disaffected readers.

The Ethics and Values Committee is planning four regional meetings to bring editors together for discussions of journalism values and the work of the Journalism Values Institute.

The Literacy Committee is working on a conference at the University of North Carolina that would put university researchers, who have studied how people read, together with writers and editors in search of fresh, practical approaches to more effective writing.

ASNE has invited other media organizations to join in a symposium in September to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act.

Other committees are engaged in surveys, in examining content, in fulfilling our long commitment to diversity and, in many important ways, are helping editors have a clearer vision of the future for their newspapers.

We need more workers to lend their energy and ideas to these committee projects. Contact committee chairs, ASNE officers or board members, the ASNE administrative staff or me. We'd like to put you to work.

ASNE President Giles is editor and publisher of the Detroit News. E-mail him at rgiles@detnews.com.