A Full-Employment Act for Ombudsmen!

Is it too late to reanimate the ghosts of Pulitzer, Hearst, Bennett and Kane
to save the contemporary newspaper from yuppie self-infatuation
and terminal boredom?

By Van Gordon Sauter
Former president of CBS News

A well-intentioned colleague suggested I discuss the changes that will occur in the communications business over the next 20 years — by 2018. An engaging concept, until I thought back to what I might have prophesied in 1978 about changes in the industry by 1998. That was sobering.

Who in 1978, for instance, would have predicted that a rambunctious, hokey, idiot savant from Georgia…who inherited a …

Excerpts from welcoming remarks at the 1998 ONO conference

By Karin Winner
Editor, The San Diego Union-Tribune

“In these post-O.J. Simpson days, as we chronicle the developments of one ‘gate’ after another, the readers’ representative is that vital link between us and our constituents. You provide the proper measure of constructive criticism and consciousness-raising, but also diligently defend our First Amendment rights.”…

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“These are times when that freedom is under constant attack, often unfortunately because we’ve abused it.”

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“All of you as mouthpieces for credibility, arbiters of fairness and good taste, and judges of what’s right and wrong, play a huge role in convincing readers that newspapers are an

For wire editors, the news ‘never stops’…

They are the people you want to have on your side in a game of Trivial Pursuit.

They know the names of all the countries in Africa and Eastern Europe.

They can explain the latest U.N. resolution and identify the hottest figures in country music and alternative rock.

I’ve always held wire editors in awe. Their jobs in the newspaper seem to carry so much power, such awesome responsibility, such profound influence.

They read (or at least scan) hundreds of dispatches every day from all over the world and then select a few dozen …