Wake-up call for publishers p.

By: John Consoli

NAA convention attendees told illiteracy problems continue to threaten newspaper readership
NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS LAST week were given another wake-up call on the downside of the continuing illiteracy problem in the United States.
Not many showed up, however. Although the ballroom was set up for about 800 attendees during an afternoon general session at the annual Newspaper Association of America convention in Boston, less than 200 came.
Those who did heard Houston Chronicle publisher Richard J.V. Johnson recall how he and his colleagues first received illiteracy numbers in a speech by author Jonathan Kozel during the 1984 convention.
"I remember how shocked I was when Kozol described the dimensions of a problem that few of us had ever before related to America, the world's greatest democracy," Johnson said. "I can still see the sober, intense and sometimes open-mouthed expressions of the faces of those in the audience that day."
Johnson repeated some of those numbers for publishers who attended this year.
"When we look at the target population of persons age 16 and over who do not have a high school diploma and are out of school, we find there are almost 46 million of them who desperately need literacy training," he said?and those are potential readers who newspapers may never get as subscribers unless something is done to correct the problem.
Johnson quoted Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), who said that there are 23 million adult Americans who cannot fill out a job application form?or read a newspaper.
Mary Hatwood Futrell, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at George Washington University, also had some sobering statistics.
According to UNESCO stats, she said, "there are more than 900 million illiterate people in the world today?two-thirds of whom are women. Furthermore, more than 240 million boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 14 do not have access to formalized education."
Added Futrell, "In the world's greatest and most powerful democracy, a literate, a well-educated citizenry must be given the highest priority.
"I believe that you, through your newspapers, can help Americans understand the magnitude of the challenges facing our schools, our country and the world."
Futrell said newspapers also have the power to "help prepare Americans, individually and collectively, to respond positively and determinedly to these challenges."
She told the publishers: "We need your assistance in helping each generation to become more literate."
Futrell said literacy opens the way to a life of dignity, adding, "Literacy includes not just the ability to read, but the ability to read between the lines . . . not just the ability to count, but to determine what counts."
Literacy, she said, "helps us to understand that apartheid in South Africa, ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia, the struggle for democracy in Russia and the economic successes of Germany and Japan have implications for us as a nation."
Futrell said she was impressed with the fact that 89% of 600 newspaper publishers who responded to an NAA survey indicated that their compa-
nies have Newspaper in Education programs.
"Through the NAA and through the individual newspapers represented here, efforts to enhance literacy for all Americans can be achieved," she commented.
"One of the major roles of newspapers has been that of helping us to define and preserve our democratic way of life," she said. "Hopefully, you will ensure that the sun continues to rise every day for each generation of Americans. Hopefully, your mission will continue to be to foster that conviction in the hearts and minds of the American public and other publics throughout the world."