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.