Rush Limbaugh is stealing your readers.

The trend in opinion writing is toward better-written editorials that both inform and delight, according to a panel of experts at the recent NCEW convention.

Addressing the topic "Changing directions in opinion writing," Howell Raines, editorial page editor of The New York Times, said his paper is covering a more diverse range of issues in its editorials. "We need to offer an intellectual buffet to appeal to a broad range of readers and interests," he said.

Raines said that if papers want to keep the readers they have and acquire new ones, "you can't hold them with editorials that are mystifying. They need to be well thought out and expressed in language that is pleasurable to read." He advocates raising the quality of the writing in editorials, which he said "must give information and entertain, using vigorous, muscular language."

Wall Street Journal editor Robert L. Bartly concurred. The Journal has "changed the tone" of its editorials, offering "more entertainment and a feister quality," Bartley said. "The times have changed; politics have changed. Publishers who stop papers from being lively are making a commercial mistake. Rush Limbaugh is running off with all the readers."

Bartley said the Journal is changing direction by writing "lively editorials that take risks and aren't afraid of offending. We assume our readers know some things."

At the Philadelphia Daily News, editorial page editor Richard L. Aregood extolled the freedom derived from being the second paper in a market. "We write about things people actually care about," he said. The paper places and emphasis on writing, and tries to avoid being pompous in its editorials. "We're not here to bore people to death."

Aregood said that when he became editorial page editor, "the best thing I brought to the job was that I didn't know a thing about editorial writing."

Editorials should be "loose," he said, but must also take strong positions. "If we don't have an opinion, then why write about it? Why just lay out a series of positions? We do that in the news pages."

The three editors also discussed the issue of fairness on editorial pages. Bartley referred to the criticism the Journal had received "from columnists suddenly worried about civility" regarding Journal editorials that were critical of White House aide Vincent Foster.

He said the paper "had no clue" about Vincent Foster's mental state and could not have done anything to prevent his suicide. "His death tainted our editorials. but they stand up well as a body of work," Bartley said.

Aregood maintained that a paper's opinion pages "can't be totally balanced every day." Raines agreed, saying The New York Times's policy is that, "Over time, we have all points of view on our editorial and op-ed pages."