“APME” Items

History of Newspaper Design and Year 2000 Visions

As part of the 1989 Associated Press Managing Editors convention Des Moines, I developed a script for a slideshow about the history of newspaper design and the vision developed from the American Press Institute’s seminar on the future of newspaper design.  That seminar, “Newspaper Design 2000 and Beyond,” was help in 1988.

The goal of the APME slide show was “look back so that we might look forward.”  [The  slide show was videotaped.]  Douglas Ramsey, who was a vice president at the Foundation for American Communications, did the narration. The AP put the show together.  Nancy Tobin, who was at The Asbury Park Press, helped with the creation of the show.

I found a VCR tape of the show, which is visually terrible.  However, I’ve posted it.  One of my goals is to take the narration, which was quite nice, and recreate the show in digital format.  Stay tuned. [Update in 2021: Still the plan. Life happens.]

YouTube player

Year 2000 Viewed by 1988 Committee

Robert [Bob] Cochnar, whom I worked with at the San Francisco Chronicle, invited me to join his Associated Press Managing Editors committee about the future of newspapers.  Called the Year 2000 Committee, one of the goals of the group was to create a report for the 1989 APME convention in Des Moines.  Here’s some of what Bob wrote in a note to committee members:

To borrow an idea from Phil Meyer, who pioneered the notion that research could also be a reporter’s and editor’s tool, I’d like to divide our work into several broad segments.

I.    Things We Know For Sure About Newspapers in the Year 2000 and Beyond.
II.   Things We Think We Know About Newspapers in the Year 2000 and Beyond.
III.  Things We Need to Know About Newspapers in the Year 2000 and Beyond.
IV.   A Summing Up: What We’ve Got to Do.

Somewhere, in some file is the report.  Meanwhile, in this PDF, is some of the correspondence from committee members.

[Bob didn't put a date on his letter, so I'm guessing it was in fall of 1988.]

 

Editors Told Big Changes Needed. Did They Listen?

Even though it was 2007, I was still making speeches to editors [and publishers] about the need to embrace change and transform the newspaper business.  One such plea for change was made at a Texas Associated Press Managing Editors convention in San Antonio. A fellow trouble-maker at the event was Michael P. Smith, executive director of the Media Management Center at Northwestern.

I said that not even popular online sites can rest easy and the challenge is young people who aren’t newspaper readers.  And I talked about “control”  of content and media.

From a story published in the San Antonio Express-News:

And editors can’t forget they’re dealing with an audience that’s “digitally equipped,” as more people own devices that give them control of a medium such as digital video recorders like TiVo.

These digital devices give control.

“No one wants to give up something that gives them control, Finberg said.  Young people, especially, “want to take somebody else’s content and add to it.”