Fundamentals, not flash, will save us.

DISCUSSIONS ABOUT WHAT editorial pages need to do in the way of survival too often seem to be extolling change for the sake of change.

More bells and whistles, we are told. More interactive features. More innovation, from signing editorials to eliminating endorsements to including readers in the process of preparing the page. In some places, in desperate emulation of Internet bulletin boards, editors are running letters unsigned, and a few have even initiated editorial pages without editorials, which is something like an eggless omelet.

The discussion sometimes moves on to whether there's any point in struggling. We may have already lost the X generation or the Y and the Z. One can't follow these discussions too long without hearing a message that editorial pages, to survive, must quickly transform themselves into a hybrid with elements of People magazine, an AOL chatroom, and a New England town meeting.

But saints alive, people! Isn't this the post-Vietnam generation? Why are we so uncritically swallowing the message that we must, in effect, destroy this village in order to save it?

Look around once. The grownups of our profession -- The New York Timeses, Wall Street Journals, Washington Posts -- are still the ones that excel at the fundamentals. They have obviously realized that, although they have some of the best Web presences anywhere, a flashy cheerleading line is no substitute for the ability to block, tackle, kick, and run the ball. So they continue to do what they always did. They continue to do it better and better. And they continue to be influential and admired.

I say that if others don't survive as editorial pages in the 21st century, it will be because they forsook the fundamentals. It will be because they placed too much trust in electronic wizardry or social gimmickry and neglected the hard work and talent it takes to be a strong and positive influence. Or because they cheaped out and put their money in gadgets instead of people. Or because they fell into the notion that an editorial page should stifle itself -- as in the case of election endorsements -- and become mostly a discussion leader because that's "nicer" in some ways.

Some of them may die because they desired so deeply to be liked that they smoothed away all contentiousness and appeared to forget why editorial pages existed in the first place. They didn't hear the voice of the readers asking for clearer writing, sounder reasoning, and more authoritative comment on the issues that concern them.

Fortunately, as the grownups of the profession illustrate by their continued existence and success, hope remains. The primary rules of survival are still what they always were:

NCEW member Frank Partsch is editorial page editor of the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska. His email address is [e-mail]

1. Hire good writers and sound thinkers.

2. Lead them wisely and honorably, setting an agenda and allowing them the freedom to pursue the truth.

3. Don't underpay them.

4. Make sure they have all the resources, including time to think and renew themselves, to do the job as it should be done.