Convention '97

We want to make you a star.

You can have your minute of fame. You can gain the admiration of your fellow editors for your wisdom and imagination. You can strike a blow for better American newspapers. You can experience the flattery of imitation. You can impress your traveling companion.

What will all this cost you? A minute of your time - literally - at next April's ASNE convention in Washington.

The program committee for that convention is working on identifying the 50 or 60 best new newspaper content ideas from readers of The American Editor and their newspapers. These might be for sports pages or news pages, Web sites or special sections, TV books or indexes. (There's even a special honors category: Ideas That Got You In Trouble.) The chief requirement - beyond the brilliance and originality we know lurks out there - is that these be ideas other editors might adapt for their papers.

In the charge to the committee from program chairman Tim McGuire, editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "We will place special emphasis on the takeaway value of content ... All takeaways ought to be considered in light of small papers as well as larger papers." That's what this is about.

The best ideas we find will be presented by their authors in a multimedia-in-the round format in a fast-paced convention segment. If yours is selected, a sample of it will be photographed for a slide and shown on big screens. Then, it's time for your 60 seconds in the spotlight. You'll explain your paper's innovation to a moderator and the assembled editors.

Audience members will go away with a list of what they might try at their own papers, the names of contact people and the ASNE's Web site address - we'll post the ideas there, too. (That address is http:// www.asne.org)

Step one is to get your idea on the playbill. Do that by sending a note, an e-mail, a clipping, a tearsheet or all of those to a member of the subcommittee that's putting this program segment together. One of the three will be back in touch for more details.

Not planning to go to the convention? We hope you are, but we're looking for the best ideas first, for presenters second. Send your suggestion in any case.

The addresses:

Jane Amari, managing editor/electronic media, features, production; Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108. Fax: 816/234-4926. E-mail: jamari@kcstar.com
Joe Distelheim, editor, Huntsville Times, P.O. Box 1487, Huntsville, AL 35807. Fax: 205/532-4420. E-mail: jdistel@traveller.com
Keith Moyer, executive editor, Fresno Bee, 1626 E St., Fresno CA 93786. Fax: 209/441-6436. E-mail: jkmoyerbee@ aol.com.

Distelheim is editor of the Huntsville (Ala.) Times.

Please see the 1997 convention preview from this issue of The Editor