RIVER CITY JOURNAL: NEWSPAPERS IN AMERICA ARE STRONG, VIBRANT -- AND GETTING BETTER

After a day of judging newspapers from around the country, I was both impressed and inspired. I hope readers are too.

On Sunday, newspapers across America will begin celebrating National Newspaper Week. Please bear with me today as I share a few thoughts about newspapers.

I have been in the newspaper business long enough to have learned a few things, mostly by trial and error. Generally speaking, the newspaper business has always placed more emphasis on learning by doing than formal training. Why? Mainly because each newspaper has its own way of doing things. And while many readers believe newspapers all come from the same cookie cutter, folks who labor every day to produce the nation's daily and weekly newspapers have a starkly different view.

Over the years I've been involved in newspapers as a reporter or as an editor, I've experienced hundreds of different ways to achieve the same result: a newspaper delivered to readers on time. I can honestly say I don't think there is just one way of putting out a good newspaper. Every day there are hundreds of real-life examples of ways to produce excellent newspapers.

To twist an oft-repeated saying about art: I know a lot about newspapers, but I don't know what I like.

That's because I like all kinds of newspapers. Take my favorite hometown newspaper, for example. The Wayne County Journal-Banner in Piedmont has been coming out every week since long before I can remember -- and I can remember long enough that the "50 Years Ago" column now has names I recognize. Each week the Journal-Banner is chock full of community happenings, including country correspondence from rural communities all over Wayne County and (among my favorites) East Carter County.

These correspondents record history as they see it through the celebrations of life, church services, births, illnesses and deaths. When a country correspondent in a weekly newspaper says she is saddened to tell of the death of a longtime neighbor-friend-relative-old school chum, she means it from the bottom of her heart. Readers know that. And it is what I consider to be an important part of newspapers today.

When I started in this business, there were 1,751 daily newspapers in America. Of those, most (1,444) were afternoon papers, and the rest were morning papers. That's the way Americans read their newspapers in those days in towns that had daily newspapers. You came home from work to pick up a freshly delivered afternoon paper that recorded the events of the day.

Last year, the number of daily newspapers had shrunk to 1,509, with about 700 morning papers and about 800 afternoon papers. This shift to morning papers is an indication of changing lifestyles. About the only time everyone is home in an American household these days is before breakfast. The rest of the day is crammed with work, school, sports, church, community involvement and television.

In spite of the changing lifestyles, many newspaper readers who grew up with an afternoon paper continue their well-established habits. I still hear readers of the Southeast Missourian, a morning newspaper only since 1990, say they wait until evening to read our newspaper "because that's the way I've always done it."

That's OK. I have some unshakeable habits too.

(By the way, when I started my first newspaper job -- at a weekly newspaper -- there were 8,061 weekly newspapers. Last year the number had dropped to 7,214. However, circulation at weekly newspapers has increased dramatically from an average of 3,106 when I started to 9,763 last year. This shows how important thriving weekly newspapers have become.)

For the past year, the Southeast Missourian has proudly proclaimed on the front page every day: "Awarded first place in general excellence by the National Newspaper Association and the Missouri Press Association." This was the first time the newspaper had been given the highest accolade for general excellence by both state and national newspaper organizations in the same year. We have taken great pride in these honors, and we have worked hard to maintain our overall excellence to the benefit of our readers and advertisers.

If you look at today's front page, you won't see anything about our general excellence awards. That's because another year of state and national contests has come and gone. While the Southeast Missourian was again recognized in Missouri and nationally for its general excellence, other newspapers won first place.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that I am extremely proud to be in the same company of this year's winners. Let me tell you about the top winner this year in the National Newspaper Association contest.

This year's NNA contest was judged by editors who are members of the Missouri Press Association. Our state was chosen for this task because, among other reasons, so many Missouri papers -- including the Southeast Missourian -- were top winners the year before.

Joni Adams, our managing editor, and I went to Columbia this summer to join the other editors who had assembled for a full day of judging. There are dozens of categories for both weekly and daily newspapers in the contest, and Joni and I agreed we would only judge weekly categories to avoid judging our own newspaper.

After nearly six hours of poring over weekly newspapers in various categories, we were nearing the point of newspaper overload. But we were excited at the same time, because there are so many darn good weekly newspapers being published across the land. It was inspirational at times to see the creativity, passion and commitment to journalism excellence as we evaluated one category after another. I can tell you that strong, vibrant newspapers are being delivered to hundreds of thousands of readers every day and every week.

As I was judging my last weekly category, I came across a newspaper that stood out well above any I had seen all day. I became engrossed in its content, its presentation and its overall high quality. Then I realized I was looking at a daily newspaper, and I was judging weekly categories.

Judges in these contests have wide latitude to make decisions about papers that are improperly entered. Some enter the wrong category. Others put the wrong contest labels on their entries. In this case, the folks at NNA headquarters had mistakenly put the daily paper in a bundle of weekly entries.

I looked at the label. The paper I was drooling over was an entry for the general excellence category in the daily division. In other words, I was holding probably the stiffest competition to the Southeast Missourian.

Doug Crews, the executive director of the Missouri Press Association, was both coordinating the judging and judging some categories himself. I went to him and asked, "Who's judging the daily general excellence category?"

His reply: "I am."

"Here," I said. "This is probably the winning entry."

I handed Doug the general excellence entry from the The Sun in Gainesville, Fla.

On the way back to Cape Girardeau, I told Joni what had happened. Later, I shared the story with the entire news staff.

Last week, the NNA handed out its contest awards at a convention in Reno, Nev. I am pleased to say that the Southeast Missourian won some nice awards in several categories. The general excellence winner in the daily division? The Sun, Gainesville, Fla. And second place? Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

For the third year in a row, the Southeast Missourian has been one of the top two papers nationally in the general excellence category, daily division. And now that I've had a good look at The Sun, I can tell you I'm very proud to be in that newspaper's company.

But watch out. Next year the Southeast Missourian will be trying even harder to be the top newspaper in the national contest. From what I saw during the judging in Columbia, so will a lot of other newspapers.

And that's good for newspaper readers everywhere.

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.