NAA, ASNE 2004 Meetings to Overlap

By: Joe Strupp It's not just a coincidence that the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) and the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) have scheduled their annual conventions for the same week in April in the same city, Washington. For the first time ever, the two organizations plan to combine some of their convention activities next year in an effort to address some of the industry's major problems.

"There are enough things of joint interest to make this worthwhile," said Scott Bosley, ASNE executive director. "It is good to have some time together." NAA President John Sturm agreed, calling it "something of a novel approach."

In the past, the ASNE convention has usually been held first, normally in early April, with the NAA gathering up to a month later. Bosley said the two groups had discussed as far back as five years ago holding their events simultaneously and decided that this was the year to try it. ASNE's conference will take place April 20-23 at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, while NAA will meet April 21-23 at the nearby Omni Shoreham Hotel.

The planning committees from each group will meet during the next few weeks to hammer out specifics, said Bosley, who expects to have several combined sessions, as well as some common guest speakers. Since 2004 is an election year, Bosley said they would likely include President George Bush and one or more of the Democratic presidential candidates.

In addition, attendees will likely be allowed to visit any of the sessions of both conventions. "It is an opportunity to have editors and publishers in the same room discussing issues we have in common," said Peter Bhatia, ASNE president and editor of The Oregonian in Portland. "There are some huge issues we need to talk about." Bosley expects the sessions to focus on credibility, ethics, freedom of information and readership.

The combined approach also comes at a time when both conventions have seen their attendance dip in recent years, due primarily to cutbacks at newspapers. ASNE, which has about 800 members, used to draw at least 700 to the yearly convention, but dipped to 600 in 2001 and has averaged about 550 for the past two years. NAA, with a membership of 2,000, had seen a drop in attendance from 1,234 in 2000 to 934 in 2001 and 735 in 2002, but with an upswing to 902 at its last convention in New Orleans.

Both Bosley and Sturm said the joint effort was not aimed at drawing more people to either event, saying only a small percentage of attendees usually go to both.