By: Joe Strupp For those attending next week's Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) conference in Louisville, Ky., connecting with readers may be as simple as walking across the hotel lobby.
In an unusual move aimed at highlighting the need to reach out to those who buy (or don't buy) the daily product, APME has invited 10 newspaper readers from around the country to sit in on panels, mingle with editors, and nosh at the nightly receptions.
These "reader embeds" were chosen from among those who took part in APME's credibility roundtable sessions during the past year. After participating in the convention events during the first few days, the readers will have their own panel discussion, offering feedback on the sessions to editors and APME officials.
"We are putting them into the sessions and on the panels to ask questions, get into arguments, whatever," said Stuart Wilk, APME president and associate editor of The Dallas Morning News. "They will be able to turn the tables on us. It is a little scary, but that is good."
The embeds are having their travel and hotel costs covered by APME, and they're being given a $500 honorarium, Wilk said. They are one of several reader-related elements slated for the convention, which will run from Wednesday, Oct. 13, to Saturday, Oct. 16. Others include a release of the group's annual credibility roundtable research and a series of survey reports stemming from a mass e-mail poll of readers, conducted through 40 newspapers, on credibility, blogging, and election coverage.
Other sessions include speakers and panels on political coverage, terrorism, privacy legislation, niche publications, foreign coverage, press freedom, and convergence.
"I think there will be some real tangible things you can take back to your newsroom," Wilk said.
Some editors may feel like they are in a game show if they attend a special photo session titled "Tough Calls." In that event, a panel will review controversial photos that did or did not run in newspapers and ask those in the audience if they would have run the pictures.
Using an electronic audience response device, like something out of "Love Connection" or "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire," attendees will indicate their answers, with results popping up on a big screen. "It brings an interactive technology to it and shows us what people are thinking," Wilk observed.
Despite APME's first convention-fee increase in six years (which raised the price for supporting members to $420 from $395), Wilk is expecting attendance to top 300 for the first time in four years.
"We have been able to keep costs down, but they are getting more expensive," he said about the fee hike. "Everything costs more."
One way APME has offset convention costs is with a major boost in corporate sponsorships for the conference, which nearly doubled to $93,000 this year from about $50,000 last year. "They have come through in a big way," said Wilk. "To get that level of support from newspaper companies really helps."
Anyone still wishing to register for the conference can sign up at
www.apme.com.
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