Exploring more than one right answer

Combining "new journalism" with "old values" can be controversial, but finding multiple paths to the same goal is nothing new for newspaper editors

This is adapted from an item Currie wrote in Gannett's News Watch newsletter after attending the ASNE board and committee chair meeting in Detroit.

There is, in our journalistic world, an ongoing struggle to find the right answers regarding publication of ever better newspapers.

What is exciting about this today is the vigor with which new ideas are pursued, even as old values are supported and frequently embraced.

The more I watch this, the more I believe that these ideas can exist side by side and are not - as some argue - dramatic and incompatible opposites.

During the course of a recent ASNE board/committee chair meeting, I heard of work involving change in our newsrooms; a journalism values effort; an exploration of frustrations and successes among editors in large and small newsrooms; a call for better writing and content; an exploration of more steps toward diversity; and a recognition of Freedom of Information obligations in this country and freedom of the press abroad.

Each editor in the room no doubt had his or her own interpretations of these topics and some strongheld beliefs. But no editor there seemed to question the value of exploring these issues.

Public or civic journalism provides a good illustration. On a discussion related to it, clearly some editors favored a full-speed-ahead approach; others were very cautious about involving newspapers and/or outside forces in it; others wish to refrain from the practice entirely; and still others acknowledge that they are in the middle as the debate surrounds them.

These variations likely would be a fair description of editors in our own company, although I believe Gannett's News 2000 program naturally leads newspapers to more involvement and leadership in the community and thus more comfort with what is called public journalism.

Under our News 2000 program, we strongly believe in exploring with readers and non-readers the issues most on their minds.

Using one-on-one conversations, in-paper surveys, community forums, reader advisory groups, formal research and other ascertainment and interaction approaches, we reach out to get their ideas and to understand their concerns. Often this leads to identifying major issues in the community, and that in turn leads the newspaper into helping the community find ways to address the problems. News 2000 is in its sixth year as a companywide program, so this is second nature to most of our editors now.

This program has fostered change and challenged all of us to look anew at the way we edit our newspapers and meet the changing needs of our readers.

That's our internal situation. But the broader point is that as editors, as journalists, we need to keep examining and exploring topics to refine our thinking and improve our newspapers. And we need to do it, I believe, with the reader always in mind.

Coming out of the ASNE meeting, I read in The American Editor a very thoughtful essay by William Woo, former St. Louis Post-Dispatch editor who now teaches at Stanford University. His piece addressed the importance of editors not only achieving journalistic success but also "life success." He urged journalists to consider that not everything can be measured in the day's output or in the weight of a title.

Thinking of the many challenges explored earlier that day, I found the Woo essay underscoring the additional complexity of dealing with those challenges.

We are in a business that demands much of us.

Editors sometimes feel success is measured not only by the stories they run but also by the hours they keep.

If they are not on the job 70, 80 or 90 hours a week, they believe, the system will crash. Same for their key people.

But it is time to press harder in this area, too, to find a balance that changes the "I have to do it to get it done right" mindset and allows time for the "human side" to emerge.

In our company, I believe strongly we will continue to make our newspapers better and more relevant to our readers. I believe that the industry - with dedicated and aggressive leadership - can do the same.

As we push ahead, we must see to it that "new journalism" and "old values" blend well. And that blend must include an understanding of professional balance for our readers and personal balance for our own people.

Or so it seemed to me on a night of reflection after a day of vigorous effort on behalf of our readers and our colleagues.

Currie is senior vice president/ news for Gannett and chair of the Small Newspaper Committee.