| Topics: Civic Communication Wilmington News-Journal
Economic Summit The paper and the Delaware Public Policy Institute teamed up to sponsor a two-day economic summit in March 1993, convening 25 top business players. Pre-summit briefing booklets contained citizen queries gathered from a series of five town meetings across the state. Summiteers identified barriers to economic growth; each participant took responsibility for tracking a set of issues for legislative or other action. In early 1994, the paper and the institute reconvened the group to reassess earlier and to chart future action. Participants said they wanted to meet annually. A case study by Project on Public Life and the Press
New York University, Department of Journalism,10 Washington Pl.
New York, NY 10003, (212) 998-3793 © Project on Public Life and the Press,1994 The Project is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Wilmington News-Journal (newspaper)
P.O. Box 15505
Wilmington, DE 15850
(302) 324-2500 (phone)
(302) 324- 5509 (fax) Ownership
Gannett
No. newsroom employees: 130 Circulation
132,000 (daily)
150,000 (Sunday)
Circulation Area (pop):
Delaware, NE Maryland, some areas of southeast Pennsylvania (800,000) Initiative
The Delaware Agenda Dates
January 1993-present Lead Editor
John Taylor, editorial page editor Executive in charge
John Walston, executive editor When and how did this initiative get started?
On the heels of the 1992 gubernatorial election, news and editorial-page management commissioned a Gallup poll to identify crucial issues for the state, partly in response to Gannett's News 2000 focus. After a January special section covered the six top topics, the editorial page issued a call for action on several fronts, including a call for a gubernatorial economic summit. Institute representatives contacted the paper about taking action in tandem when the governor failed to take initiative on the summit. What are the goals of the initiative?
To identify, gain citizen input on and track key issues as the incoming governor took office; and to provide a forum in which economic issues could be discussed among key players, with the players developing and implementing solutions they themselves proposed. What does the initiative entail?
For the summit, editors and institute representatives sought racial, gender and geographic diversity as they identified key players, among them elected officials, CEOs, labor union representatives and small business owners. The town hall meetings were promoted in the newspaper, and those who could not attend were urged to write and fax queries to the paper; these were summarized in booklet form and sent to summiteers as background. At the summit, participants spent a full day defining barriers to economic growth and another full day proposing solutions and creating action plans with dated goals. Outside facilitators were hired to lead the summit. Editors from Wichita attended a newsroom seminar to help prepare staffers for the initiative. How many people are working on it?
Six, including those who worked on the poll, the resulting issues package and the summit. What does it look like in the newspaper?
The 1993 special section focused on the economy, crime, health care, education and children at risk. The paper covered the summit on news pages and tracked issues throughout the legislative session and beyond. Response to the Initiative In the newsroom:
No problems about excessive activism came from the newsroom, as the summit was clearly an editorial-page initiative, "done by the publisher with me as his agent," Taylor said. In the community:
Leaders and members of the general public were enthusiastic. The summit itself drew 50 members of the public each day. Did any outside group continue the paper's initiative and carry it further?
The Delaware Public Policy Institute, was a cosponsor of the summit and has helped to track issues. Established and funded by the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, the institute tracks projects of general statewide interest such as water resources and health care policy. (Executive Director: John Lopez, 302-655-7221) What's next:
Summit participants will reconvene annually. Case study written by Lisa Austin, Assistant Director of the Project on Public Life and the Press, September 1993, updated March 1994. Lisa is also a member of the CPN Journalism editorial team. More Information Project on Public Life and the Press
New York University
Department of Journalism
10 Washington Pl.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 998-3793 Back to Communication Index | 
