Embrace a different world: find out what readers want and how they want it--and give it to them.

Every opinion writer has had occasion to pen an ode to the power of partnerships. So it is fitting for NCEW to trumpet the possibilities for collaborations that are arising from the June 26-27 meeting hosted by the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio.

With the help of Eddie Roth's organizational skills, NCEW'S executive board members and NCEW Foundation president John Taylor joined in conversations about innovation in opinion journalism with Gannett vice president of market development Joni Silverstein; Kevin Riley, editor-in-chief for Cox Ohio Publishing's ten newspapers; Ann Grimes, acting director of Graduate Program in Journalism at Stanford University; and Pam Johnson, executive director of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. Kettering associates Bob Daley, Idit Manosevitch, Janet Alamasi Dabire, and Noelle McAfee, billed as "observers" were active participants in lively and often challenging discussions.

Imagine one of the most dynamic editorial board meetings you've ever attended--then multiple it by ten.

Moderator John Oppedahl quickly guided the group to a shared understanding about the importance of opinion pages as the modern-day equivalent of a community's watering hole. Whether in print or online, opinion "pages" can and should inform, lead, guide, and create conversations.

Historically, opinion pages have been "a trusted place where people can come for moderated discussions about issues," McAfee said. The job of the pages' writers and editors is, as NCEW secretary Tom Waseleski put it, "to keep the conversation going."

What many NCEW members are discovering, however, is young readers, defined by the group as forty and under, may never be attracted to the ink-on-paper forum, regardless of how creatively redesigned. The question became how can NCEW help its members create online watering holes?

"People at all ages are forming opinions," Cox's Riley said. "The question to me is, how are they forming them? Older Americans are using our pages to help; the problem is at younger ages and how they are informing themselves. Young people distrust institutions. They feel empowered yet largely ignore traditional media."

Reynolds' research about media habits and the young, Johnson said, reveals that "there just is so small a resonance for the youth to the products that we put out today. They don't know us; they don't want to know us. Everything about their world is different from ours. That doesn't mean give up what we are doing; it means we have to find other ways to attach to them."

McAfee, whose research includes new participatory media, threw down the challenge: "How deep is your commitment to recognizing a different world? Are you willing to say that from this day forth it is so valuable to me to know what the people in my community know and think and want, that I'm willing to completely change the dynamic of what I do and how I do it?"

NCEW's representatives believe the answer is a resounding yes, which is why the organization is embarking on a pilot project to partner with media companies in three to five local communities to develop a new template for opinion journalism in new media.

Throughout the talks, the importance of the printed page as a vital community asset was never lost.

"But where you have succeeded with a particular audience just might not bring you the same success with a different audience," said Gannett's Silverstein. "Continue to serve the audience we have really well and come up with other platforms to serve other audiences."

At discussion's end, participants agreed research was needed on two fronts:

* Conduct focus groups with younger people who are reading newspapers but not reading opinion pages. What are they interested in? How are they forming opinions now?

* If to do something "new" we have to stop doing something "old," we need to know the value of what our members are doing now. NCEW members need baseline research to know if letters to the editor are a declining asset, for example. Does our printed page need more than one edit a day? Can we give up syndicated columnists to focus on identifying and cultivating local writers?

By partnering with other industry leaders, researchers, and academics, NCEW is committed to equipping its members with the answers--information that can help all of us look forward to a vibrant and healthy future for opinion writing.

Jill "J.R." Labbe is the deputy editorial page editor of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram and NCEW's immediate past president. Email: [e-mail]