A more secure future for minorities program

Projects and programs for journalism education

Let me share some good news with you. Terrence G. Harper, executive director of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation of Indianapolis, announced at our Chicago convention that his organization has awarded one hundred thousand dollars to help endow our Minority Writers Seminar.

This is a tremendous vote of confidence in NCEW and its Foundation. It says that others in the newspaper business recognize the good work our organization continues to do. The NCEW Foundation had been struggling each year for nine years to finance the minority writers training at the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University. The Freedom Forum, First Amendment Center was especially helpful in providing money to jump-start the program for a number of years. Today, the Diversity Institute makes available computers in a modern newsroom setting during the seminar. That is a priceless gift.

When funds were tight this year to pay for the Minority Writers Seminar, many people and organizations pitched in to assure the continuance of the program.

* President Lynnell Burkett of NCEW and her husband David contributed one thousand dollars.

* Reid MacCluggage, retired as publisher of my paper, The Day, gave five hundred dollars.

* Joan Armours firm, Armour&Armour of Nashville, contributed thousands in in-kind services.

* Hearst Newspapers contributed three thousand dollars; Sigma Delta Chi Foundation gave five thousand; Roanoke Times, the employer of Tommy Denton, the immediate past president of NCEW Foundation, gave two thousand dollars; Star-Tribune Foundation of Minneapolis gave three thousand; The Tennessean, host paper for the workshop in Nashville, gave two thousand; and Knight-RidderNewspapers contributed twelve hundred fifty dollars.

* And, of course, the volunteer faculty-syndicated columnist Rick Horowitz, Chuck Stokes of WXYZ-TV, Pia Lopez of The Sacramento Bee and Don Wycliff of the Chicago Tribune-paid their own expenses to teach at the seminar.

But NCEW Foundation wanted to ensure that this program, so important in opening opportunities for minority journalists to learn about newspaper and broadcast opinion writing, would continue indefinitely.

We have applied to a major newspaper foundation for a grant of one hundred fifty thousand dollars to operate the program for five years and to have fund-raising help in building a half-million dollar endowment to assure the programs future. The generous gift from Sigma Delta Chi Foundation raises twenty percent of the permanent endowment. Very soon, we will be reaching out to other newspaper foundations to endow the program fully. I personally believe we can accomplish that aim within three years.

Our foreign travel program involved attending the international AIDS conference in Bangkok last summer and traveling in Southeast Asia. The Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation awarded NCEW Foundation seventy-five thousand dollars towards that goal. The United Nations Foundation has pledged one hundred thousand dollars to help pay for the editorial writers' travel on that trip and to finance future programs dealing with international issues. Kate Stanley of the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis raised that money and organized the trip.

Many editorial writers were able to go to Asia because the grants provided paid for the bulk of the trip's costs.

Other organizations helped, too, to operate our programs this year. The New York Times Foundation gave five thousand dollars; Dow Jones Newspaper Fund contributed two thousand and the Post-Courier Foundation of Charleston, South Carolina, gave fifteen hundred dollars. Gary Farrugia, editor and publisher of The Day and an NCEW member, sent five hundred dollars from our newspaper and The Repository of Copley, Ohio, gave fifty dollars.

I believe that once we raise the endowment for the Minority Writers Seminar, we can very quickly start to build another endowment to provide professional training for editors at regional workshops all around the country. These mini-conventions will be especially helpful in providing professional development for editors who can't attend the national convention.

Finally, NCEW members gave generously. Convention-goers contributed $6,667.12 to the Foundation Celebration, up $360.12 over last year's total. And members of NCEW have contributed about twenty-five hundred dollars in individual gifts thus far. Won't you join the growing number of NCEW members who support the Foundation financially and help provide professional training that makes opinion pages everywhere better?

Statement of ownership, management and circulation

1. Publication title: The Masthead

2. Publication number: 0752-350

3. Filing date: October 1,2004

4. Issue frequency: Quarterly

5. Number of issues published annually: 4

6. Annual subscription price: $35

7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 3899 N. Front St., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17110

Contact person: Sherid Virnig Telephone: 717/703-3015

8. Complete mailing address of headquarters of general business offices: 3899 N. Front Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17110

9. Publisher: National Conference of Editorial Writers, 3899 N. Front Street, Harrisburg, PA 17110

Editor: Frank Partsch, 3122 South 104th St., Omaha, NE 68124

Managing editor: N/A

10. Owner: National Conference of Editorial Writers, 3899 N. Front St., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17110

11. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders: None

12. Tax status: Has not changed during preceding 12 months

13. Publication title: The Masthead

14. Issue date for circulation data below: September 2,2004

15. Extent and Nature of Circulation

a. Total number of copies: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 900; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 900

b. Paid and/or requested circulation:

(1.) Paid/requested outside-county mail subscriptions stated on form 3541: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 674.25; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 659

(2.) Paid in-county subscriptions: O

(3.) Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other non-USPS paid distribution: O

(4.) Other classes mailed through the USPS: number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: O; Number of copies of single issue publishednearest to filing date: O

c. Total paid and/or requested circulation: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 674.25; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 659

d. Free distribution by mail (samples, complimentary, and other free):

(1.) Outside county as stated on Form 3541: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 20; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 24

(2.) In county as stated on Form 3541: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: O; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: O

(3.) Other classes mailed through the USPS: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 79.5; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 7

e. Free distribution outside the mail, by carriers or other means: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 9.5; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 7

f. Total free distribution: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 109; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 38

g. Total distribution: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 783.25; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 697

h. Copies not distributed: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 116.75; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 203

i. Total: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 900; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 900

j. Percent paid and/or requested circulation: Average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months: 86.08%; Number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 94.55%

Morgan McGinley is editorial page editor of The Day in New London, Connecticut. E-mail M.Mcginley@TheDay.com

Copyright MASTHEAD National Conference of Editorial Writers Winter 2004
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