Share this issue with your publisher: NCEW proves its investment worthy.

We've all been there, resisting that sinking feeling as we gossip with other journalists about a round of layoffs here, a slashed budget there, and the endless musical chairs of newspaper ownership.

You can stick your head in the ground and ignore it, or you can hang out with your more optimistic colleagues--like those in the National Conference of Editorial Writers. This would be a good issue to share with your publisher because it shows NCEW is a good investment for any shop--with coverage of a first-rate convention and discussion of the innovative Opinion Pool project. And two former publishers help make the case.

In the Symposium, John Oppedahl, NCEW'S consultant and former publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, offers a more optimistic view of our industry than he shared in these pages a year ago. I have to give it to him. His dour adaptor-die predictions proved prescient with many newspapers cutting back their opinion pages and a couple even eliminating them.

Oppedahl is not saying the trend has turned, but he's optimistic editorial page editors and writers can rise to the challenges before them. It's possible--just not easy. The Opinion Pool might be one solution.

The NCEW project coordinator Eddie Roth provides a window into the Opinion Pool project, but he's going to make you work for it. Access it through Facebook, the online social networking site--and learn a little bit about how the next generation interacts with each other.

Rounding out the Symposium is another former publisher, Gil Thelen, who has been spending some time with future journalists as the James A. Clendinen professor of editorial and critical writing at the University of South Florida. The Tampa Tribune's recently retired publisher offers some fresh perspectives on how to be relevant to younger readers. Colleagues in Boise, Wichita, and upstate New York offer a few ideas and lessons as well.

Kevin Richert of the Idaho Statesman writes about being sought after by the national media when Senator Larry Craig blamed the paper for his scandal. Phillip Brownlee got some national attention too when The Wichita Eagle's "Brownback Girl" video went viral. One recent count put the viewings on the paper's Website and at YouTube at more than 75,000.

In upstate New York, Mike Vogel at The Buffalo News enlisted editorial page editors from eight neighboring papers in a project to focus legislative attention on issues important to the region.

You'll see some new faces in this issue. Several first-time convention-goers contributed articles about the September convention. Thanks to Miriam Pepper's planning, the Kansas City meeting provided a great combination of panels addressing our craft, including coaching on shooting video editorials, as well as ideas about the state of America's divisions on the eve of the 2008 election year.

The diversity and depth of the convention program is another good thing to point out to your publisher. Or as Oppedahl notes, "I believe this is a great time to be a member of this outfit and there never has been a time when all this could be more important."