News in the news business isn't all grim

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We hear a lot of gloomy news and speculation about the newspaper business these days. I can get angry or discouraged myself about some of the decisions that journalists and publishing executives make. I’ve sounded off about some of them in this column or in discussions with colleagues. But now is not the time for that.

I want to start the new year with a positive outlook. So I’m sharing some experiences and observations from 2005 and things I see coming in 2006 that give me hope about this grumbling business:

Thanks first to the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Biloxi Sun-Herald for demonstrating the undiminished importance of the hometown newspaper to its community. These newspapers and their staffs served their communities far better than any local or federal elected leaders or public agencies before, during and after Hurricane Katrina.

They served their readers in the greatest traditions of the news business – investigative reporting before and after the fact, blanket coverage of breaking news and strong commentary. They also served their readers with the innovation we need today, spreading the news online when the presses were disabled and connecting the community when readers were scattered beyond distribution routes. I’m sure dozens of other newspapers provided similar service to smaller communities hit by Hurricane Katrina and other communities facing lesser disasters.

I am looking forward to hearing what our New Orleans colleagues learned about digital storytelling when Jon Donley, editor of the Times-Picayune’s web site, nola.com, speaks in January at API’s Compelling Storytelling Innovations seminar. (If you couldn’t register in 2005 for budget reasons but have more money available in the new year, you still have time to register.)

Also in 2005, investigative reporters for the New York Times and Washington Post told stories that demonstrated the importance of newspapers as watchdogs, even – and especially – in times of war. The Times story about domestic surveillance without search warrants and the Post story about the CIA’s use of secret foreign prisons were important stories that citizens needed to hear, the kinds of stories great newspapers tell when our free press is performing its most important work.

Newspaper Next, API’s project to develop a new business model for the newspaper industry, began work in 2005 and will be completing its study in 2006. I am excited about this project and I hope you are, too. Our industry needs a new, visionary business model. Our response to changing markets and technology has been reactive, late and incremental. The Newspaper Next task force includes some forward-looking people who should be able to help us take advantage of change, rather than getting run over by it.

Even if newspaper companies aren’t investing enough in training their leaders and workers, lots of newspaper people and organizations are working hard to fill that need. I am partial, of course, to API and the work we do in our residential seminars, the Learning Newsroom, the Media Center, the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism as well as the Tailored Programs that I direct. But if I spent too much of this column boasting about API’s work, that might just be too much self-promotion. I’ll indulge in some self-promotion later, but first I wish to praise the work of lots of other organizations and people who serve the news industry. They have enriched the year that is ending for me and feed my hopes for the year ahead.

I visited the Poynter Institute in September for its annual conference of newsroom trainers. I also developed an online course, Beat Basics and Beyond, for Poynter’s News University, aided ably by News U director Howard Finberg and producers Elizabeth Ferris and Vicki Krueger. Poynter and API are planning a faculty exchange in 2006, with Keith Woods, Poynter’s dean, leading a session of our New Editors’ Survival Guide seminar in March. I will return the favor at a Poynter seminar later in the year. The National Writers’ Workshops, which Poynter co-hosts along with local newspapers, continue to provide excellent low-cost regional training opportunities. I had a great time in 2005 at the NWW in Fort Lauderdale, planned by Gail Bulfin, and am looking forward to joining Kevin McGrath and an outstanding lineup for the NWW in Wichita in 2006. In addition, I am hoping to work on occasion with Poynter’s Bob Steele and Kelly McBride on API’s Our Readers Are Watching seminar.

The first Our Readers Are Watching seminar at The Oregonian was a highlight of my year. Rosalie Stemer and I led discussions of important ethical issues facing newsrooms, from the use of confidential sources to privacy to skeptical editing. We concluded with an enlightening discussion of these issues with a panel of readers of the newspaper. I was encouraged by the interest of these readers who gave up an afternoon to share their views with their newspaper. Some of them even came to sit in on other sessions with the staff. These were more than just interesting discussions. Michael Arrieta-Walden wrote a column about the newsroom’s re-examination of its coverage of suicide, spurred by the seminar.

Michele McLellan of Tomorrow’s Workforce is leading the Front-Line Editors Project, an effort to coordinate and improve the various programs throughout the industry that offer training for those important newsroom leaders. I joined the group’s April meeting in Washington and look forward to seeing the results help API and other organizations provide better programs for a group that traditionally found their way with little or no training.

APME’s NewsTrain has presented programs to train hundreds of front-line editors across the country. I was privileged to attend and help plan a February seminar hosted by the Mid-America Press Institute in St. Louis. That went so well that MPI is hosting another NewsTrain in Chicago in February.

MPI, for which I am a board member, has been providing low-cost regional training programs since the 1960s. Other regional organizations such as the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association and New England Press Association provide similar service to other parts of the country.

A formerly regional organization, the Inland Press Association, now serves a national and even international membership. At the January editors conference where I led a workshop, the “inland” audience included editors from the states of Washington and Arizona and the island of Bermuda. Suburban Newspapers of America is another niche organization whose niche is growing.

I’m a big fan of the growing cadre of specialty organizations that help journalists with common interests find better ways to meet their shared challenges. I was delighted to help in 2005 with the fellowship program of the Religion Newswriters Association and I look forward to working with RNA again for the 2006 conference in Salt Lake City. Many other organizations, such as Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Society of Environmental Journalists, serve other journalism specialties.

One such group, the Society of Metro Editors, got started in 2005, following an API seminar for city and metro editors. It’s about time these important newsroom leaders got the benefit of a helpful network.

Several organizations provide training, networking and support to journalists from racial and ethnic minorities. The future success of our business depends in great part on our ability to connect with our increasingly diverse communities and these organizations provide valuable support to people who can sometimes feel lonely in a newsroom that’s much whiter than the community it serves. I enjoyed leading a workshop for the South Asian Journalists Association in 2005.

The Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism continues to help more than 1,000 journalists each year elevate the storytelling we provide to our readers. Mark Kramer and his staff present an outstanding experience that I know provides helpful instruction and inspiration to the writers and editors who attend. I went to the December writers’ conference in 2005 and the spring editors’ conference in 2004 and came away from both with lots of ideas.

The Canadian Association of Newspaper Editors provides regional training opportunities for reporters and editors. I joined Don Gibb in presenting a program organized by Bryan Cantley in Halifax in November. Plans are under way for regional seminars in Saskatoon and Ontario for 2006. Bryan also runs Wordstock, a writing conference in Toronto presented for the past 10 years by the Ryerson Journalism Alumni Association. I’ve presented programs there the past 10 years and enjoy both the program and the camaraderie afterward in the Library, a nearby pub.

State press associations and editors’groups also present strong programs that are especially helpful for staff members from smaller newspapers for whom a day out of the newsroom and mileage to the state capital are significant commitments. At programs for the North Dakota Newspaper Association, AP Oklahoma News Executives and Virginia Press Association, I saw how much journalists from these smaller newspapers appreciate these opportunities. At a November meeting of the Newspaper Association Managers, I caught a glimpse of the fine work other state associations are performing for their members.

While we hear lots of news about newspaper companies cutting costs while profits are high, I want to give credit to some companies that are continuing to invest in training their staffs. I was involved in 2005 in training seminars for the Vancouver Island News Group, Chesapeake Publishing, Ottaway Newspapers and Freedom Community Newspapers. And I’m discussing plans with some of those companies and others for training in 2006. Lee Enterprises has already scheduled a seminar for copy editors in Tucson in February.

Individual newspapers also are recognizing the value of training. I visited the newsrooms of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Bakersfield Californian, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Peoria Journal Star, State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., and Stars and Stripes for training programs that demonstrated their editors’ and publishers’ commitment to staff development.

Other newspapers serve religious and ethnic communities with increasing professionalism. In a consulting gig for the Cleveland Jewish News, I enjoyed seeing how well a small, committed staff could serve a community niche with multiple quality products.

A highlight of 2005 for me was my experience with foreign journalists who show great passion for growing in our craft and serving their readers and their countries. I met at API with groups of visiting journalists from Denmark, China and Uzbekistan. An API Tailored Programs seminar for executives of Grupo de Diarios América gave me exposure to the professionalism of editors and publishers at newspapers in 11 Latin American countries. At a program for the Alfred Friendly Press Fellows, I worked with journalists from China, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Yemen, Tanzania, South Africa and Uruguay. Other in-person and online contacts with journalists from Nigeria, Kuwait, Namibia, Nepal, Uganda, Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany showed me how widespread the desire for professional improvement is among journalists.

If you’ve read this far, I hope you’ll indulge that self-promotion I refrained from earlier. The Learning Newsroom, a joint project of API and the American Society of Newspaper Editors, is working to transform the culture of 10 newsrooms scattered across North America. Under the direction of Vickey Williams, this project holds great promise for the future of newsrooms.

While most of my work involves planning and presenting seminars, I got to spend a week in October as a member of API’s Executive Development Program, led by Ed Baron and Mark Mulholland. In one sense, the program was wasted on me, because its real purpose is to prepare newspaper executives for the step up to publisher, and I’m never going to be a publisher. Still, it was a terrific week that gave me great insight into the industry we serve. I was reminded why API seminars are a career highlight for so many members.

The week underscored that I had made the right decision in March when I decided to join API after 10 years (in two hitches) as a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald. I like this business. I believe in its future. And I want to keep providing rich training experiences for the people with whom I will be sharing that future.

We face important challenges in the news business. I won’t tell you that I don’t find discouraging or maddening news on Romenesko pretty much every day. But I wanted to tell you about some of the inspiring people, encouraging developments and uplifting programs that boost my spirits.

sbuttry@americanpressinstitute.org

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