Last Updated: April 21, 2006
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SEATTLE, Wash. — The nation’s
top editors will discuss the future of the industry, innovation, watchdog journalism
and freedom of information, when they gather for the annual convention of the
American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 25-28, in Seattle.
Among the key speakers at
the convention are Starbucks Coffee Company Chairman Howard Schultz, Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates and John Carroll, Pulitzer Prize winning editor.
ASNE president Rick Rodriguez,
executive editor of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee will address ASNE members on the state
of newspaper journalism on Tuesday, April 25, at 2:10 p.m.
The convention program begins
on Tuesday, April 25, at 2 p.m. That day will feature an address by Schultz
and a look at technology, demography and Wall Street as they impact the newspaper
industry. Addressing that issue in a discussion moderated by Alberto Ibargüen,
president and chief executive officer of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
On the panel are: William B. Drewry, managing director and head of media at
Credit Suisse Securities, Atlanta, Ga.; Gary B. Pruitt, chairman, president
and chief executive officer of The McClatchy Company; and William Dean Singleton,
vice chairman and chief executive officer of MediaNews Group in Denver.
The morning general session
on Wednesday, April 26, will focus on the future of newspapers, from bold experiments
to reach readers to best practices for Web sites to a panel of innovators discussing
what they see on the road ahead. The afternoon general session will focus on
ethics and anonymous sources.
The theme of the morning
general session on Thursday, April 27, is watchdog journalism. Also, ASNE Award
winners will be honored and discuss their work. A luncheon panel will discuss
the current immigration debate. The panel, moderated by ASNE secretary Gilbert
Bailon, publisher and editor, Al Día in Dallas, features Eliseo Medina, executive
vice president of the Service Employees International Union, Ira Mehlman, media
director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and Doris Meissner,
a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington and former commissioner
of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The afternoon general session
will focus on freedom of information and ASNE’s Sunshine Week.
Friday morning will feature
a discussion of keeping journalists safe in Iraq, covering China, and lessons
learned from the coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Also that morning, Jim Amoss,
editor of The Times–Picayune in New Orleans, and Stanley R. Tiner, executive
editor The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., will be honored as recipients of the
ASNE Leadership Award.
Gates will address the editors
at the closing luncheon.
ASNE will release the latest
results of its annual newsroom survey, which focuses on newsroom diversity,
on Tuesday.
ASNE’s committees will release
three new publications at the convention:
- Ethics Education: What
editors want, What J-Schools teach, How both view the results.
- Anonymous sources:
Pathways and pitfalls.
- ASNE Innovative Ideas:
Sections, sites and new approaches that are creating buzz.
During convention week,
ASNE members will elect seven members to the board of directors, and the board
will elect new officers.
ASNE, with about 750 members,
is the largest organization of directing editors of daily newspapers in the
Americas. More information is available at http://www.asne.org.
ABOUT PRESS COVERAGE OF
THE ASNE CONVENTION
Press coverage of the convention
is welcome, and procedures for registering as press are available online at
http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=5144. A registration
form is available at http://www.asne.org/images/2005pressregistrationform.pdf.
Registration will also be available on-site.
Question and answer sessions
during conference sessions and luncheons are for ASNE members only. Questions
from the media will not be permitted.
Members of the electronic
media should note that lighting will be available for events at the Westin.
Mult boxes will be provided in both locations and must be used.
Press release schedule:
Tuesday
- Newsroom diversity
survey results
- President Rick Rodriguez’s
speech
Friday
- ASNE Board, Leadership
election results
For the current convention
schedule (updated as events warrant), consult
the ASNE Web site at http://www.asne.org. Also on the Web site will be
stories from The ASNE Reporter, the daily convention newspaper produced by a
multicultural staff of college students.
Contact Kevin Wilcox, ASNE
communications director, at 206-256-7625.