Amoss Urges Editors to Attend APME Conference In New Orleans

By: Joe Strupp Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans has not stopped Associated Press Managing Editors from holding its annual convention there this fall. In fact, Editor Jim Amoss of the Times-Picayune is encouraging editors to participate in the yearly confab, which will be tailored to focus on the tragedy's aftermath.

In a letter sent to more than 1,500 newspaper editors this week, Amoss is asking them to visit New Orleans during the convention to see first-hand the impact of the hurricane, and help the city return to its old form.

"When New Orleans was on its knees last summer, many of you were kind enough to ask what you could do to help our city get back on its feet," Amoss wrote in the letter sent out this week to APME member papers. "I write today to let you know there is something you can do: Make an effort to have your newspaper represented at the upcoming APME convention in October."

Amoss was named E&P's Editor of the Year in February. The cover photo showed him in a still-ravaged neighborhood.

APME had planned to hold its yearly gathering in the Crescent City even before the hurricane. But the organization's leaders chose not to change the location, deciding instead to offer events that provide a learning experience for members.

The convention, slated for Oct. 25-28 at the Astor Crowne Plaze Hotel, will be hosted by The Times-Picayune, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the hurricane and its aftermath. "Other Gulf papers, including The Sun Herald of Biloxi, Miss., another Pulitzer winner, and The Advocate in Baton Rouge, are helping to plan the conference," APME officials said in a press release.

A notice on APME's Web site says the theme of the convention will be "Rejuvenate, Reinvent and Rejoice." Organizers said they will focus much of the time on how the hurricane was covered and what impact it had on journalism, adding that they are "beckoning journalists to come and see first-hand the ever-folding story that continues to play out on front pages across the country. How well did American media cover the disaster? Where did they miss the mark? What lessons can be learned? What will the ravages of the storm and flooding mean for U.S. society? Culture? The economy?"

APME officials added that the conference will include bus tours of the city's destroyed neighborhoods, which Amoss wrote "are as disheartening today as they were when the floodwaters were drained in September.'"

The editor went on to add, "I have taken visitors on similar tours. They always say that nothing they had read or seen on television and in photographs prepared them for the scope of the devastation. It is important that American editors witness this extraordinary American story firsthand."

For more about the conference go to http://www.apme.com/conferences/2006conference.shtml