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<DIV> Professor Keith has put forward thoughtful arguments for
changing the name of the division she has so faithfully chaired for the past
year. While thoughtful -- even literary -- I'm not convinced that the reasons
for change are convincing.</DIV>
<DIV> Many in, around and outside the newspaper
industry seem to have developed a Titantic complex. The ship has struck an
iceburg and is headed for the bottom. Abandon ship! Or, at least,
find a cruise liner that's more comfortable in the contemporary age.</DIV>
<DIV> That the American newspaper is going through one of
its more turbulent periods is not in question. From small town to metropolis,
editors and publishers are looking for new models and better ways to keep a
changing and sometimes fickle citizenry.</DIV>
<DIV> Academe, of all institutions, should be a place
that takes the long view of everything. The long view -- the media
historian in me has seized the platform -- says that the newspaper has changed
in response to competition and culture over two centuries of American
life. Approximately 60 million newspapers are sold daily under 1,500 names
across the land. And, 8,000 community newspapers serve smaller towns and
suburbs. The explosion of inexpensive and instantaneous means of
interpersonal communication is driving everyone in the business bonkers as
they search of a new way to do business. This is a developing
story, folks. The end has yet to be written and that may be a decade or
more away.</DIV>
<DIV> Amidst the contemporary turbulence, it's clear
that newspapers are trying to add credible, competitive, useful
online versions of print products. Thus "the
newspaper" remains at the heart of whatever is happening. None of the
well-meant but fuzzy alternatives to "Newspaper Division" seems to say what
we're all about. </DIV>
<DIV> We have had a chronic problem of bridge building to
the newspaper industry, and changing the name will do nothing to improve
it. Tell me the last time a newspaper reporter, editor or
publisher told you how much he or she enjoyed the latest issue of
<EM>Newspaper Research Journal</EM>? I advance the thought as a long-time
member of <EM>NRJ'</EM>s editorial board who holds the work of the editors in
great esteem. But what academics write about is a bit thick from the
standpoint of those who are trying to report the democracy to a sometimes
disinterested readership. </DIV>
<DIV> The division's work has always been tied to what
goes on in the newspaper business and has promoted continuous contact over
the decades. It's difficult to believe that a name change will
be understood or favorably received from the still important world of
newspaper journalism. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Wallace B. Eberhard, Ph.D.</DIV>
<DIV>Professor (Emeritus), Georgia</DIV>
<DIV>Former head, Newspaper Division</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR>
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