JUST FLEW BACK FROM THE WINDY CITY

It wasn't so windy there, but there was plenty of hot air, because for five days hundreds of cartoonists descended upon Chicago to meet with colleagues new and old, to catch up, discuss the current state of their business, and to celebrate themselves and their profession. And while cartoonists are great at communicating with pictures, they're pretty good with words, too.

The National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards are about recognition from your peers. And some of the "peers" among cartoonists are giants. You might not know Mort Drucker or Sergio Aragones, but if you've ever picked up a MAD magazine, chances are you would recognize their work. And if your paper is not a subscriber, you might never have seen an editorial cartoon by Dick Locher, but you've probably seen the work of a winner of the award he created to help discover young cartoonists and stimulate interest in editorial cartooning, the John Locher Memorial Award. And you might not read Lynn Johnston's For Better or For Worse, but you would be one of the very, very few readers who reads the newspaper only for news.

In fact, at perhaps no other event is cartooning celebrated more. And perhaps no other event has the pall of concern for the industry over it as this one. As cartoonists trying to break into the comics pages compete with reruns of Peanuts and other old strips now taken over from their long-dead originators, there is a bit of a dark cloud raining on our happy event. Where once there were several newspapers in a market, now there is one, maybe two. And the lack of competition has resulted in a lack of space devoted to comics and diminished space throughout the newspaper. Many of us wonder, can there even BE another Calvin and Hobbes? Will any cartoonist who began his strip in the new millennium ever see a client list of 2,000-plus newspapers, as Watterson did? Or even 1,000-plus?

Yet it could be argued that comics readership is actually greater than ever, with so many fans finding them online. Perhaps one day we will be using additional media to distribute our comics, such as cell phones (not a new idea, but one that's had technical difficulties that are probably about to be overcome) and iPods. Regardless, comics in one medium or another will always be with us because we need our diversions. And plenty of readers will still receive their favorite diversions on their daily "crispy Kleenex."

Amy Lago is comics editor for The Washington Post Writers Group.

CORRECTIONS AND THE FEAR OF GOD

It was 1971. My very first editor was standing next to me as I pored over my notes to prepare my story. I looked up, hanging on his words:
"Write with the fear of God over you." I've never forgotten.

With everything I've written or edited since then, I have this creepy feeling of being struck by some sort of thunderbolt if I make a mistake. Columnist Ellen Goodman calls it simply the fear of being wrong. The fear drives you to the point where you make damn well sure that everything in your story, column or blog is something you know to be true. You know it first-hand -- or your writer does -- or you don't go with it.

We work our hardest to get it right and when we make a mistake, it stays with us for days, forever even. Keeps me awake at night.

I remember a doozy. I covered a Sunday afternoon rally of biker toughs in West Virginia. Slow news day. I had the perfect quote from a state trooper on the bikers' behavior, but somehow got his name wrong. I saw it on his badge, and wrote it down wrong as I scribbled away. It was an exclusive quote and nothing came of the mistake, but weeks later I saw a picture of the same trooper and realized from the caption that I got his name wrong. What must he have thought of me, my company and my profession after that? I've always wondered and never forgotten.

Years later, every time I hear someone say something like, "I don't read the paper, they make so many mistakes. Why, they misspelled my son's name in a school story," the fear returns.

But mistakes are part of life and when we make one, and are told about it, we send a correction immediately -- hopefully before publication. If it's too late, then with the next column. We know that some people will remember the column more for the mistake than for all the fine things we did that day.

Worst of all is to be mistaken and not be told. The man complaining about misspelling his son's name didn't call his local paper because he believed it wouldn't matter. Well, it does matter. Anyone, anywhere needs to contact us immediately so we can send a correction as soon as possible.

This doesn't mean that we post rebuttals. That's what e-mail addresses and letters to the editor are for. But if we're wrong in any fact, quote or number, we quickly correct our mistake and try harder next time.

At the Writers Group we converse with more readers more than ever before. Sure, some point out mistakes, but most write in either outrage or gratitude. The important thing is that they have been moved. And if they have learned something, we have done our jobs.

Alan Shearer is editorial director of The Washington Post Writers Group.

CONFESSIONS OF A COMICS EDITOR

A few weeks ago, when Berkeley Breathed first ran THIS STRIP past me, I didn't see what he thought might offend people. After he explained his concern to me, I showed it to my colleagues here at the Writers Group. Nary a one of them interpreted the little robotic hand's function in the way you just did. (Shame on you!) So it just didn't seem like any readers--ones who would be offended, anyway--would take it quite so...deeply, shall we say, either. But, indeed, one editor did not think his ME would allow the strip to run. And there was really nothing I could say, because Berkeley himself had raised the concern. It's one thing when a reader calls and proceeds to go into ranting detail about why he or she was offended, and you can say "Shame on you!" But it's another thing when a client newspaper editor calls and is calm and polite and reasonable and open-to-suggestions. So HERE is the edited version, the one that makes it clear that the little robotic hand stops exactly where I had stopped it in my own imagination. And you should have, too. (Shame on you!) Can you spot the change?

Amy Lago is comics editor for The Washington Post Writers Group.

ALWAYS AMAZING

I was traveling through Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky when it hit me: working for The Writers Group can resemble being a participant in CBS' hit reality show "The Amazing Race."

Fortunately for me, I didn't have to bungee jump off a bridge or ride an elephant two miles in order to find a clue to my next destination and avoid the risk of being eliminated for finishing last. But as is always the case, this trip featured its share of rushing from appointment to appointment, unavoidable delays (a car accident that closed Interstate 64) and some beautiful scenery (the Shenandoah Valley; Kentucky Bluegrass).

While the scenery provides a nice backdrop, what I most value are the face-to-face conversations with editors who are happy to share information about their papers, their readership and their communities.

My editor at the Writers Group told me of a famous line attributed to Washington Post ombudsman Bill Green back in the 1980s. He told the editors to go to Baltimore once in a while and find out what the rest of the world is like. Every time I hit the road on behalf of The Writers Group, I feel a renewed sense of what life is like outside the Beltway.

One editor told me that in his West Virginia city, readers were more concerned about natural disasters than rising gasoline costs and/or a possible bird flu pandemic. A Virginia editor recalled receiving complaints from readers when he tried to add a crossword puzzle; they thought that because it was so difficult, it made them feel inferior. And when asked about the blogs at his newspaper, an editor relayed that he had received several responses to a blog entry he had written, noting their city school district had school buses numbered 665, 667, 668 but bus number 666 conspicuously omitted. We could only draw our own assumptions on the reasoning behind this; his calls to the school district had gone unanswered.

I'll be packing up soon to head out on my next version of the amazing race and I look forward to meeting more editors and seeing more of America. And I won't rule out the possibility of a bungee jump.

Jennifer Ferrell is a marketing representative for The Washington Post Writers Group.

WELCOME ALVARO VARGAS LLOSA

Launching a new column is cause for a bit of excitement at The Washington Post Writers Group. Promotional brochures have to be written, produced and mailed to prospective clients. The marketing staff makes calls, sends e-mails and visits publications around the world. And finally, the editors come together with the writer to get the inaugural column shipshape and distributed.

That day arrives Tuesday, when editorial director Alan Shearer and I will edit the first of what I hope will be years' worth of columns by Alvaro Vargas Llosa. Alvaro joins The Writers Group's family of columnists, political cartoonists and comic-strip artists at a time when there is a great need for new voices to interpret and analyze geopolitical developments in the era of globalization.

A native of Peru and a resident of Washington, D.C., Alvaro truly is a citizen of the world. He has lived and worked in Europe, Latin America and the United States, and traveled extensively in Africa and Asia.

We're betting his writing, which is both entertaining and full of insight, will become a big hit with editors worldwide. The once-weekly column will be distributed in both English and Spanish.

Welcome aboard, Alvaro.

WHY A ''WRITERS GROUP"?

That $64 dollar question surfaces often, most recently in our Wednesday morning staff meeting when we were discussing whether to commission a new logo for The Writers Group.

One quick answer is that we value writing over everything else. I think that's evident with the quality of the writers who produce op-ed, business and lifestyle columns. But The Writers Group also syndicates political cartoons, comics and a crossword puzzle. And we maintain a photo store and sell reprints of Washington Post articles.

You might ask, haven't we diversified in our mission? Not really. People might be drawn to a cartoon or strip by the artistry, but what gets them to laugh is the writing. All our cartoonists are great writers. Meanwhile, crossword puzzles have to be the most difficult writing assignment in the English language. And remember the line about a picture? Worth a thousand words.

So I think the answer is obvious. We are a group of writers. As we like to say, you have to write your way in.

MULTIPLE-CHOICE

In his day job, columnist Jabari Asim is deputy editor of The Washington Post's Book World, which provides book reviews to the daily paper and in a self-contained section on Sunday. I know how hard Jabari and his colleagues work at it because Book World contains some of the finest writing in the Post, from critics who are knowledgeable both about the subjects and the authors whose books they are asked to review.

The Writers Group distributes Book World reviews as well as the Newsweek News Service, which features the weekly output of that award-winning magazine, including columnists such as Fareed Zakaria.

Both Book World and the Newsweek package -- as well as the America Economia News Service we distribute in Latin America in Spanish and Portuguese -- are ways for editors to get more value: multiple writers covering multiple subjects.

CLASSIC

I couldn't resist this from a New York Times editorial on the death of A.M. Rosenthal, that paper's former executive editor. I think it explains what addicts so many of us to journalism:

"Newspapering is not a philosophy, it is a way of spending a lifetime," Abe Rosenthal concluded when his time running this newspaper ended. He added, "If you don't have a sensation of apprehension when you set out to find a story and a swagger when you to sit down to write it, you are in the wrong business."

James Hill is managing editor for The Washington Post Writers Group.

THE CHATTERING CLASSES

Ever want some quick advice from Carolyn Hax? Wish you could ask Michelle Singletary for a financial tip? Writers Group columnists also chat online at www.washingtonpost.com.

Chats are a way to make the writers more accessible to the people who read them. And sometimes, the questions can really get personal, as with this one to Eugene Robinson:

Rockville, Md.: Did you get picked on when you were a kid because your name is Eugene?

Eugene Robinson: Not really. I was tall and could run pretty fast. In second grade, I had an arch-rival,
Alfred Bush, with whom I would have a playground fight at least once a week. But nobody really got hurt.
I don't think it was my name that pissed him off, I think it was the fact that I was kind of cocky about
being a smart kid.LINK to entire chat

Robinson, Hax, Singletary, political columnist David S. Broder, Lean Plate Club columnist Sally Squires, humorist Gene Weingarten and Book World's Michael Dirda all are regular chatters. You can check the lineup here. You can get find a schedule each day on the home page under the heading "Live Online."

James Hill is managing editor of The Washington Post Writers Group

LIVING IN A WIRED WORLD

I dread the day my Washington Post fails to arrive in that little box with the Post logo that has been a ubiquitous feature of the suburban Washington, D.C., landscape for years.

That's because I personally can't live without a paper. I need the perspective about how the news is being played. I need to know what made Page One and what didn't. I need to see the placement of the columns on the op-ed page, and nod in approval if one of our writers has made the top of the page, or question why another was placed at the bottom. I need to glance at the Metro, Style, Business and Sports fronts. Suddenly all is right in my world. When I get the chance, I'll digest it all with a thorough reading of the day's Post.

And of course, I acknowledge that this is not the world many people live in. For most of my adult life, I've seen people rejecting the paper for other forms of mass communication, most devastatingly toward network television and later cable. But newspapers remained the bedrock of journalism because they allowed the craft to be practiced in depth. Name your story -- my favorite still remains Watergate -- and chances are, it began and developed as a newspaper story.

Which is why I fell in love with the Internet. If we in newspaper journalism would see this as an opportunity and not as a threat, we could turn it into our salvation, not our demise. It's taken awhile, but I think the newspaper industry now gets it. Little signs keep emerging that newspaper publishers are moving rapidly to find their niche in cyberspace, and earning the profits to maintain the quality journalism this country must have for democracy to thrive. Today's online reading of Romenesko brought two promising reports, which I'll share here and here. One is that Wall Street is reacting positively to the online growth of newspapers, even if circulation of the "dead-tree editions" continues to slide. Another, about journalism in the Boston area, casts the Web as being positively Emersonian.

I like that. A year ago, in a forum on blogging in which I took part, I told a questioner that I thought the Founders were surely smiling seeing all the blog activity that was developing on the Internet. We're finally having a national conversation -- all you need is a modem to take part. (For a dissenting view, see my colleague Richard Cohen, who has set off something of a "conversation" himself.) LINK<LINK.

Yet I'm also convinced the newspaper tradition will live on, even though I still dread the day when I don't make that trek down the driveway.

James Hill is managing editor of The Washington Post Writers Group.

SOMETHING'S UP IN INDIA

I had been working for some time on an interview with India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the father of his country’s impressive economic reforms as finance minister in an earlier government and now architect of a new strategic relationship with the United States that gave rise to a draft agreement with President Bush that is intended to allow the United States (and other countries) to sell and have some oversight on civilian nuclear reactors and technology to India, which has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

When an opportunity to see him in New Delhi materialized, I ran for the airport, arriving after a 22-hour journey shortly before midnight on April 17 for our 10 a.m. meeting on April 18. Driving into the city, I was stunned to hear jackhammers slamming into the ground of a construction site at midnight. There is a vibrancy to India at this moment, as economic growth continues in the 8 percent to 10 percent range, that is impressive and contrasted to my next stop of the trip, Europe.

I found that Singh’s reputation for precision, moderation and modesty in manner and speech, and quick intelligence to be justified. As we talked, peacocks that roam the garden of the prime minister’s official residence came pecking at the glass door. It was a welcome leavening for what must be one of the most heavily guarded residences in the world because of the sharply felt threat of terrorism. That has helped draw India, once the leading firebrand in the Non-Aligned Movement, into a strategic partnership with the United States. And Singh was clear that he sees that partnership as the key to the economic development his country is energetically pursuing, despite -- or perhaps because of -- enormous infrastructure problems and widespread rural poverty.

I had long been scheduled to visit London for interviews on Tony Blair’s future --material that will show up in columns to come -- and then to speak at the American Academy in Berlin, an important gathering point for policy officials, intellectuals and those curious about America in Berlin. So my second week of this extended trip took me to Europe. I chose something of a provocative subject for my Berlin talk -- American Power and Global Insecurity -- to draw out German attitudes about the use, or misuse, of American power, particularly in the Middle East.

I found, however, that some of the antagonism toward U.S. foreign policy that I experienced on my last European trip six months ago had subsided, largely as a result of three factors: One was Angela Merkel's becoming chancellor of Germany and eschewing the political attacks on Washington that her predecessor had systematically made. Two was Condoleezza Rice’s charm offensive to woo the Europeans rather than deliberately dismiss them, as was done in the first Bush term. Three, and probably most important, was the shift in European mood as citizens and officials have heard the fiery rhetoric of Iran’s president, watched Muslim mobs enflamed by Danish cartoons burn flags and consulates, been surprised by Hamas forming the new Palestinian government, and gone through other experiences, including the 7/7 London bombings. So the conversation that followed the lecture was more along the lines of how do Americans and Europeans cooperate on tough issues like Iran, rather than each side telling the other how wrong it is.

How deep and durable that shift will be is hard to judge from such a quick trip. More to explore on later journeys.

Jim Hoagland is an associate editor and chief foreign correspondent for The Washington Post. His column is syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL

And how. As of Friday afternoon, Richard Cohen had received 3,063 e-mails about his column on Stephen Colbert's comedy routine before the White House Correspondents Association dinner. Cohen had written that Colbert was rude. Most of his e-mailers disagreed.

WHAT'S RIGHT WITH COLUMNISTS

Nancy Kruh, who writes the Balance of Opinion roundup of op-ed columns for The Dallas Morning News and is syndicated by InOpinion, set off quite a storm in the blogosphere when she posted on her syndicate's Web site that one columnist was becoming a one-note on the subject of the war in Iraq.

Nancy has now answered her critics, many of whom I suspect were also sending e-mails to Richard Cohen.

James Hill is managing editor for The Washington Post Writers Group.

CONFESSIONS OF A ROAD WARRIOR

Writing a book is like giving birth. Right after you finish, folks always ask, “When’s the next one?”

I usually answer like all new moms, “Are you kidding?”

That’s because writing the book is just half the battle. Next is promoting and pushing the darn thing. You hope that your publishing house sends you to a number of cities and then when it does, you feel like any new mom left alone with their baby – scared and tired.

Well, “Your Money and Your Man” came out in February and I haven’t stopped promoting it since. And I am already thinking about the next one (guess that’s why I have three kids).

I kicked off the launch of the book with an appearance on CBS’ "The Early Show." I had a blast during that show with Harry Smith. He’s so sweet. If you want to see the segment click here. The segment is called “Don’t let $ Ruin Your Marriage.”

After "The Early Show," I hit the road and went to Seattle, Chicago and Atlanta. I’ve appeared in Kansas City and Indianapolis as well. The best part of my book tour has been meeting the people who read my columns every week. Some have come with columns in hand that I don’t even remember writing.

They ask me about my family. They ask me how my smarty-pants daughter, Olivia, is doing. It’s so gratifying to hear people say that I’ve changed their lives. Many have said in fact that they can’t get “Michelle Singletary” out of their head. They say things like, “Every time I go to the store I hear you asking, ‘Is that a need or a want?’”

Or a wife or husband will joke that their spouse uses me to win an argument about what they should or shouldn’t spend. It’s hilarious.

That truly is the best part of my book tours, meeting the readers who stick by me week after week.

Michelle Singletary writes the Color of Money column for The Washington Post and syndicated in more than 100 newspapers by The Washington Post Writers Group.

CATCHING UP

My postings have been AWOL the last few days, in part to allow my colleagues Alan Shearer and Karisue Wyson to catch the blogging spirit (and did they: see their posts below).

But I was drawn to something developing this morning in the Blogosphere, and that is the high praise being heaped on my good friend and former colleague Mark Tapscott for taking on Sen. John McCain in an editorial in The Washington Examiner.

Mark, who has been on the job only a couple of weeks, deserves every kudo for the editorial. What bugs me a bit is that in praising Mark, some in the 'sphere are using his editorial to knock the MSM (mainstream media) for its perceived love affair with the Arizona senator and likely 2008 Republican presidential hopeful, and not paying attention to his actions.

George F. Will would certainly be surprised. His MSM column, distributed to more than 400 papers (and Web sites) worldwide, regularly takes McCain to task over the issue of campaign spending reform, specifically that reform known as McCain-Feingold.

True, George acknowledges in his columns that the MSM generally gives a pass to McCain-Feingold since the media are exempt from its provisions. But he also sees McCain-Feingold as an attack on the First Amendment. And that is something we all should be thinking about.

TRAVELING FOLKS

David Ignatius is overseas right now, attending the Brussels Forum in Belgium. Jim Hoagland just returned from two weeks in Turkey, Britain and Germany. Michelle Singletary and Sally Squires have been on book tours. And dean David Broder has been making a number of appearances, including the Tom McCall Lecture (named after a former Oregon governor) at Oregon State University in Corvallis and to the Kansas Press Association in Wichita. Ruben Navarrette Jr. and his wife Veronica just returned to San Diego from their first trip to Paris. Eugene Robinson and his wife Avis and two sons just returned from their first trip to New Zealand.

I'll have more to say about these traveling folks in future posts, but just wanted to let you know what's happening.

BILL KELLER'S RESPONSE

Since I blogged in April about the furor surrounding the award of Pulitzer Prizes to the Post and The New York Times for stories that disclosed classified information, thought you might like to read Times executive editor Bill Keller's letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal. Hat tip. ABC News' The Note.

HOUSECLEANING

We'll be setting up an archive soon for previous postings to Writers Groupblog. As you can tell, it's getting pretty long on this page.

A FUTURE FOR NEWSPAPERS?

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently asked its readers if they could envision a day when they could "live without newspapers." Here are some of the responses. Hat tip: Romenesko.

James Hill is managing editor for The Washington Post Writers Group.

READERS ARE PEOPLE

What if, in the eternal discussions about disappearing newspaper readers, we substituted the word "people" for "readers"? The discussions would be framed:

"What can we do to meet people's needs?"

"We asked people."

"Let's find out what people are interested in."

"People tell us they get their news online."

To carry the exercise a bit further, consider this line from a common-sense column by Ryan Blethen in The Seattle Times, written during the just-completed convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Blethen writes that editorial decisions are made "to provide readers with the knowledge to help make sense of events and communities." What he if he wrote about providing "people with the knowledge ... "

There's an old saying in journalism that if a reporter sees dozens of people gathered around and looking at something, the reporter had better get over there and find out what's going on. What if I told you about something that attracts 30 million to 40 million people regularly, and gets perfunctory coverage by most mainstream media?

"American Idol" attracts that many every week, and yet I have heard countless people in my profession smirk at the very thought of covering such a thing. But isn't that where the people are? Aren't there stories of interest related to this annual rite of spring? The American Idol franchise and its imitators have spread all over the world. There's one in Arabic (Wall Street Journal, available through May 10) that gives people in that part of the world the chance to participate in a phenomenal plebiscite.

Shouldn't we be covering this event, because that's where the people are? I don't mean daily coverage of who's up or down, but interesting side stories on this phenomenon. In a new book by New York Times reporter Bill Carter, featured in the Times Sunday, April 30, meanie judge and show co-creator Simon Cowell is quoted as saying (registration required) "What this really is about is the American dream." If there's a better subject for American newspapers to cover, I can't think of one.

Words matter. Abraham Lincoln certainly understood this. A often-told story is that witnesses at the Gettysburg Address say Lincoln's emphasis in the last line was not on the prepositions OF, BY and FOR. In his delivery, he said "of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, for the PEOPLE ... " The actor Sam Waterson, in playing Lincoln, has delivered the line this way. And the columnist Nick Clooney of the Cincinnati Post (father of George Clooney) remembers hearing a witness tell the story on radio many years ago.

Think of readers as PEOPLE. And don't EVER call them "users," which makes them sound like junkies. Or "audiences," which they surely are not. As a wire service bureau chief years ago, I banned the word "ratepayer," which I still occasionally see in stories about electricity rate increases.

Go with people -- and they will go with you.

Alan Shearer is editorial director of The Washington Post Writers Group.

THE SUNDAY FUNNIES

The annual Festival of Books, sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and the University of California at Los Angeles, brought out tens of thousands of attendees to the beautiful UCLA campus. It was standing room only for the comic panel "The Los Angeles Times 125th Anniversary Presents: The Sunday Funnies" with comedienne Elaine Boosler and cartoonists Lalo Alcaraz ("La Cucaracha"), Cathy Guisewhite ("Cathy"), Jerry Scott (Zits)" and our very own Berkeley Breathed.

Boosler was a great moderator and allowed the cartoonists to cover a lot of ground about the challenges facing cartoonists in today's newspapers and where they see the future of cartooning. Breathed pointed out that today's newspapers should really call the pages "graphic entertainment sections" instead of "comics" since the pages are evolving.

The audience was a loyal crowd, with several people urging Breathed to bring back all of the Bloom County characters that they've missed for so many years. Many also applauded the suggestion to add more space for comics and expand the sections to include a larger offering. The booksigning afterward gave fans a chance to meet their cartooning heroes and several brought memorabilia from decades ago, just to prove how important a role the daily comics played in their memories and their routines of today. It's no wonder that comic readers are widely recognized (and feared?) as the most loyal readers of newspapers today.

See Karisue's photos from this event. Click here.

Karisue Wyson is North American sales manager for The Washington Post Writers Group.