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Changing
with the times
ACES continues
to draw new members,
add programs as it enters its 10th year
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| Three
of the five scholarship winners joined scholarship committee coordinator
Kathy Schenck (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), middle, at the opening session.To
the left of Schenck is Caroline Hauser (University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill), and to the right of Schenck are
Kathyrn Schwing (North Carolina-Chapel Hill) and Aubespin
scholar Diego Sorbara (University of Missouri).Unable to attend were Erika
Nunez (University of Texas at Arlington) and Amy Zerba (University
of Texas at Austin). |
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By Matthew
Crowley
A ballroom of filled chairs and energetic
spirits opened the American Copy Editor's Society’s 10th annual
conference in Cleveland on Thursday, a healthy crowd for a healthy
organization.
In his State of the Society address during Thursday's opening
plenary session, President Chris Wienandt welcomed back the familiar
(returning conferencegoers) and welcomed in the new (first-time
attendees). He said the society is strong and striving.
Part of the society's strength comes from membership, he said.
ACES now has 863 members; as of Thursday morning, 416 people
had signed up for the conference at the Cleveland Renaissance.
Vice President/Conferences Deirdre Edgar said it was gratifying
to see the conference go from theoretical planning to walking,
talking reality.
"When the people start arriving we say, 'Oh my gosh, this is
really going to happen,'" she said.
As it happened, Wienandt was one of eight people at the plenary
session who’d been to all 10 society conferences; for this he
and the others received special commemorative posters suitable
for framing.
Wienandt said the society could draw from tradition. Through
gatherings such as the annual conference and through the work
of regional chapters, he said, ACES has continued to provide
top-quality training.
Nevertheless, novelty is helping drive the society forward,
Wienandt said. In a way Wienandt himself was new; it was his
first conference as president. Wienandt's cowboy boots were in
where John McIntyre, and his ubiquitous bowtie had long stood. McIntyre retired
as ACES president shortly after last year's annual conference in Los Angeles.
It seemed many attendees were new, too. Half of the audience
members raised their hands when Wienandt called for a show of
newcomers.
New programs and innovations will propel the society, Wienandt
said. The ACES Education Fund now has become reality, he said.
The society now has a tax-exempt arm dedicated to educating students
and journalists. And, the society is working to build an endowment to
make the fund self-sustaining.
ACES is also considering hiring an executive director. Wienandt
said the move would make the society more effective.
Also, he said, ACES will help sponsor an upcoming at the American
Press Institute workshop for news editors and copy desk chiefs.
ACES is changing on the ground and online, Wienandt said. The
society's Web site, www.copydesk.org, is upgrading, adding a
new discussion board that Wienandt hopes will continue to a be
a place to debate workaday copy editing topics.
Also, for the first time, the conference is featuring a daily
conference Web log, featuring society news and observations from
some of the 58 sessions.
ACES is changing as journalism is changing, Wienandt said.
"Belts are tightening at newspapers, magazines, book publishers
even some Web sites," he said. "Staffs are shrinking at large
papers and small. Were being asked to do more with less."
On Wall Street, where analysts follow the fates of newspaper
companies, the concern is about profits, Wienandt said. In newsrooms,
however, copy desks are concerned with quality.
"In this battle of dollars versus quality, it’s easy to despair,
to say that of course, money will win; it always does," Wienandt
said. "But stop. I have hope that, even if quality doesn't vanquish
greed, it will hold its own against it. Maybe this is an irrational
hope, but I hold on to it anyway."
ACES, and copy editing will stay strong, Wienandt said. People
still thirst for information, he said, and stories with that
information will always need editing.
As more information moves to the World Wide Web, people managing
information sites are realizing they need copy editors, and are
hiring them.
"You are the backbones of your newspaper, your magazine, your
Web site," Wienandt said. "You are the future of copy editing.
Take what you learn here and make your publication better. Take
the enthusiasm you feel here and spread it around your workplace."
Wienandt invited conference-goers to leave themselves open to
surprises; they might meet someone, or learn something, new.
And Peter Zicari of Cleveland Plain Dealer, who helped lead
the Cleveland organizing committee, said he hopes society members
will leave the conference pleasantly surprised by their experience
and his city.
"People always say they're surprised about Cleveland, that they
found it was cleaner or more entertaining than they thought it
would be," he said. "I hope you’re surprised too, and that all
of your surprises are good ones."
Matthew Crowley is a business copy editor for the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. He can be reached at matthew_crowley@copydesk.org. |
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| Deirdre
Edgar, ACES vice president/conferences, gives a brief orientation. |
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| Peter
Zicari of The Plain Dealer welcomes conference-goers to Cleveland. |
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ACES President Chris Wienandt
delivers his State of ACES speech.
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STATE
OF ACES
The text of ACES President Chris Wienandt's address to the opening
plenary session of the 10th ACES conference, Thursday, April
20, 2006, in Cleveland:
This is the spot where it’s traditional
for the president to deliver an address — one that we always
hope will be short — about the state of ACES. Here’s what I can
tell you:
ACES is healthy. We have 863 members; we have 416 people attending
this conference. We have dozens of speakers who have donated
their time and their talent to lead sessions for this conference.
In the past year, here’s what ACES has done:
Through its chapters, it has continued to provide training at
a regional level that is every bit as good as any journalism
workshop in the country.
The ACES Education Fund has become reality. We now have a tax-exempt
arm that is fully dedicated to educating students and journalists,
and we are working to build an endowment to make the Education
Fund self-sustaining.
We are exploring the hiring of an executive director, a move
that will make ACES a more effective organization.
We are in the process of upgrading our Web site, both in terms
of structure and content. The first step of that process will
be operating in the next few days — an improved discussion board
that we hope will stimulate an even livelier exchange of ideas on the
practices and peculiarities of copy editing.
We have agreed to be a sponsor of an upcoming workshop at the
American Press Institute, for news editors and copy desk chiefs,
about which you can find information in the Conference Central
area. And API has donated one free tuition to the workshop to our
silent auction, worth a cool $1,875 — excluding hotel and airfare, tax, title
and license, void where prohibited, your mileage may vary. And
we’re discussing cooperative arrangements with other organizations,
to widen the reach of ACES’ training.
That’s the state of ACES. But what about the future?
After all, the newsroom is changing.
Belts are tightening at newspapers, magazines, book publishers
— even some Web sites. Staffs are shrinking at large papers and
small. We’re being asked to do more with less.
The concern on Wall Street is about profits. The concern in
newsrooms is about quality.
Some of you my age or older may see all this as part of a decline
that’s can be traced to when drinking and smoking were banned
from the newsroom.
But I digress.
In this battle of dollars vs. quality, it’s easy to despair,
to say that of course, money will win; it always does. But stop.
I have hope that, even if quality doesn’t vanquish greed, it
will hold its own against it. Maybe this is an irrational hope, but
I hold on to it anyway.
Why do people read newspapers and magazines and go to Web sites,
anyway? I hear the cynics out there saying “for the ads.” And
yes, they do, but not just for the ads. If that were the case,
news stories would have disappeared long ago. (And I can’t imagine
anyone who’s gone to a Web site just to look at the ads.)
No, people want information. Wherever they get it from, they
want information. And they want to be sure they can count on
the information they’re getting. Otherwise, what good is it?
The newsroom is changing, yes. Newspapers and magazines are
grappling with how to come to terms with the Internet. Some are
doing a good job; some are still floundering.
I’ll leave the business models to the business people, but in
newspapers, at magazines, and at Web sites, it’s still exciting
to be in the news business. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that,
and you’ll be hearing more about that tomorrow night.
So where do we fit in as copy editors? Let’s focus on one word:
Credibility.
Credibility is the lifeblood of any source of information. And
one of our main functions as copy editors is to guarantee our
organization’s credibility. Of course, credibility is everyone’s
business in a newsroom, but we are the proverbial last line of defense.
One thing that gives me faith is seeing you all here. I see
the dedication and enthusiasm of everyone who’s here. I see a
hunger for knowledge, a thirst to do your job better. After hours,
I see a different kind of thirst, but again, I digress.
I see the dedication of the organizations that send people here
to learn. I see the dedication of all the organizations that
help underwrite this conference. I see the enthusiasm of the
people who enter our contests.
Newspapers and magazines can’t do without copy editors, and
most of them are smart enough to know it. Those that try will
do so at their peril. And Web sites? Well, a lot of them don’t
have copy editors yet, but I’ve talked with a few that are starting to
realize they need them.
You are the backbones of your newspaper, your magazine, your
Web site. You are the future of copy editing. Take what you learn
here and make your publication better. Take the enthusiasm you
feel here and spread it around your workplace.
Newsrooms are changing, yes. The importance of copy editing
is not. |
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