International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors Conference Announced

Journalism’s past, present, future converge at conference in Missouri

By Gary and Helen Sosniecki, Coordinators 2015 ISWNE Conference

The world’s first school of journalism at the first public university west of the Mississippi River will be the setting for the 2015 conference of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors (ISWNE).

Non-members are welcome.

The conference will be June 24-28 at the 176-year-old University of Missouri in Columbia, a vibrant city of 115,000 on Interstate 70 midway between Kansas City and St. Louis. Shuttles run frequently from the Kansas City and St. Louis airports to Columbia, plus Columbia Regional Airport has daily flights from Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth.

On-campus sessions will be held at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI), part of the legendary Missouri School of Journalism, founded by Walter Williams in 1908 with financial help from the Missouri Press Association. The “J-School,” with an undergraduate enrollment of 2,000 plus 220 master’s degree students and 30 doctoral students, often is ranked at the top of journalism schools in the United States. An international organization like ISWNE will fit right in: more than 30 countries are represented in the J-School’s student body.\

RJI was launched in 2004 with a grant of $31 million from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The 50,000 square-foot facility has state-of-the-art resources to test and demonstrate new technologies, experiment with new approaches to producing, designing and delivering news, information and advertising, and to host conferences.

Full-conference registrants will stay in College Avenue Residence Hall, built in 2006, and eat most meals at the nearby Plaza 900 dining hall. Rooms at College Avenue Residence Hall are suite-style: two beds per room with a bathroom shared with another two-bed room. Couples or friends who prefer a private bath may rent both rooms of the suite for a surcharge.

Mizzou is a big, beautiful campus spread over 1,262 acres, so bring your walking shoes. It’s a brisk, 12-minute walk from the residence hall to RJI, but those with cars can purchase a $12 parking permit good all week at the residence-hall lot and the parking garage nearest RJI.

But leave your smoking materials at home. Mizzou is a smoke-free campus inside and out.

Conference attendees who arrive early can take a private tour at 2 p.m. Tuesday of the notorious former Missouri State Penitentiary, once called “the bloodiest 47 acres in America” by Time magazine. The penitentiary, which operated from 1836 to 2004 and once was the largest prison in the United States, is located in Jefferson City, the state capital, 30 minutes south of Columbia.

The ISWNE board meets Wednesday morning, and the conference officially opens after lunch. First-day programs focus on the history of the J-School and the “Missouri Method” of real-world media experience, including the story of the Columbia Missourian – the citywide daily newspaper published by the School of Journalism – and an overview of RJI.

We’ll conclude the afternoon with a walking tour of J-School. We’ll also visit the Missouri Press Association office, then have dinner at Shakepeare’s Pizza, which in 2010 was named America’s favorite college hangout by “Good Morning America.” The Missouri Press Association is sponsoring the dinner.

After dinner, we’ll travel a few blocks to tour Columbia’s other daily newspaper, the family-owned Tribune, which also prints the Midwest edition of The New York Times. A shuttle bus will be available for those who don’t want to walk.

We’ll finish the day with “Hospitality at The Heidelberg,” a popular campus hangout for more than 50 years, conveniently located across the street from RJI. We’ve reserved a private room for all four nights of the conference, and the upstairs patio will be available for those who want to relax outside.

Thursday we’ll board buses to visit two important historical attractions: the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence and the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, Kansas City.

We’ll have Kansas City barbecue for dinner at Jack Stack Barbecue-Freight House, sponsored in part by the Kansas Newspaper Foundation.

It’ll be back to journalism on Friday. Morning sessions start with a program by Mark Horvit, executive director of Investigative Reporters & Editors, which is based at the J-School. Then the staff of the St. Louis American will present “Ferguson – How an African-American weekly covered an international story in its backyard.”

Lunch will be served at RJI, sponsored in part by TownNews.com, with a program featuring the deans of Missouri editorial writers, Bill Miller Sr. of the twice-weekly Washington Missourian and Hank Waters of the Columbia Daily Tribune. The session will be moderated by Scott Charton, a former longtime Associated Press correspondent.

Friday afternoon, Doug Crews, executive director of the Missouri Press Association, will speak on “Dean Walter Williams and The Journalist’s Creed.” Dr. Clyde Bentley, our Golden Quill judge, will discuss “Where are we going to get our editorial writers of the future?” Then, we’ll hear what several RJI fellows are working on that could impact how we cover news in the future.

Dinner also will be served at RJI, followed by the Greenslade Bursary presentation and an award-winning one-act newspaper play, “It All ADS Up!,” in the spirit of “The Front Page,” by ISWNE member Bryan E. Jones.

The editorial critiques – the highlight of every ISWNE conference -- will be Saturday morning, followed by lunch on your own in downtown Columbia. The general membership meeting is after lunch.

You’ll have free time until the banquet Saturday evening in the Great Room of the Reynolds Alumni Center.

We’ll say our goodbyes Sunday morning at breakfast.

Full conference registration is $525, which includes all programs and activities on and off campus, shared-suite housing and meals from Wednesday lunch to Sunday breakfast, and conference T-shirts. Not included: parking permits for the dorm lot and Hitt Street garage ($12, if needed), the pre-conference prison tour and Saturday lunch on your own in downtown Columbia. Early arrivers may eat pre-conference meals at Plaza 900 with cash or credit card.

We’re also offering Friday-Saturday registration for editors from Missouri and adjoining states who are unable to attend the full conference. Two-day registration is $159, which includes all programs, activities and meals on Friday and Saturday, conference T-shirt, plus parking permit for Hitt Street Garage. Not included: housing and Saturday lunch on your own in downtown Columbia.

Two-day registrants may book rooms for Friday and Saturday nights just south of campus at Hampton Inn & Suites, 1225 Fellows Drive,  (573) 214-2222. Use code “ISW” for ISWNE rate of $109 plus tax per night, including breakfast. Reservations must be made by phone for this rate (not online) by May 31.

The registration deadline is May 13, but early registration is encouraged. Seating for the Kansas City barbecue dinner is limited, as is seating at RJI’s Fred Smith Forum, where on-campus programs will be held. We’re expecting a big crowd, and we’ll need plenty of time to adjust plans if registration exceeds certain levels.

The 2015 ISWNE conference is made possible in part by the generosity of Dean Mills, dean of the Missouri School of Journalism since 1989, and the staff of RJI, led by executive director Picht. ISWNE member Jim Sterling, Missouri Community Newspaper Management Chair, has been our campus liaison during the four years of planning.

ISWNE was founded in 1955 to encourage and promote high standards of editorial writing, facilitate the exchange of ideas and foster freedom of the press in all nations. It is headquartered at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.

For more information, contact conference coordinators Gary and Helen Sosniecki at sozsez@aol.com or see http://www.iswne.org for the registration form, schedule and updates.