David Gordon, the CVPost’s board chair, took office as president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors (ISWNE) during the organization’s annual conference, held this year in Melbourne, Australia.
He was elected as ISWNE’s vice-president a year ago and moved up to the presidency during the conference that ended July 2. He has been a member of the organization since 2001 and has served on its board since 2011.
In addressing this year’s conference, Gordon said he will work to raise the profile of community weeklies during his year in office. He added that the public is largely unaware that weeklies are the healthiest sector of today’s newspaper industry, and mentioned several ISWNE initiatives that are either underway or in the planning stages, all of which will increase its visibility.
These include a new paid summer internship program for college undergraduates and an effort to promote “conversations in community journalism” between members of the academic community and journalists working in weekly newsrooms around the country.
Among the four ISWNE interns in this summer’s inaugural program is Andee Erickson, a UW-Eau Claire sophomore journalism major.
Gordon urged ISWNE members to contact public radio officials in their home states and suggest that they cover “your efforts to strengthen the fabric of your communities through what you do every week.” He noted that the strength of community weeklies rests on their ability to connect with their readers and to provide them with information that is available nowhere else.
Gordon will be succeeded as vice-president by Steve Ranson, editor of the Lahontan Valley News in Fallon, NV. The outgoing ISWNE president is Barry Wilson of Kiama, New South Wales, Australia.
ISWNE is an international organization with members in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Nepal, China and Japan. Its goals include helping editors strengthen their editorial pages and enabling its members to provide each other with immediate advice and expertise on request, via an Internet “hotline.”
Gordon is an emeritus professor of communication and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He has also held teaching and administrative positions at Northwestern University, the University of Miami and Emerson College. Earlier in his professional career, he spent five years as a reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison and three years as an assistant to the mayor of Madison.